Here are the steps to quickly connect your phone to the internet.

Connect your phone via USB cable. On a Sony Ericsson, the phone will prompt you how you want to use your phone. Choose “Phone Mode”.

Click on the Network Manager icon in the system tray and select “New Mobile Broadband connection…”

Choose the country where your provider is in.

Choose your service provider. This will be the name of your cellphone carrier. In my case, I chose Smart.

Next is to select your plan. This option varies depending on your carrier. For Smart though, you just choose Default.

Last step is to just verify if your details are correct and click on Apply.

That’s it! In a few moments, your phone should connect your computer to the Internet and a notification will display showing that you are connected.

P.S. Yes I know I said I’ll be posting about iPod and Ubuntu. Don’t worry, we’re getting there.

Add/Remove Programs…

Click on Applications then on Add/Remove Programs…

The Add/Remove window will appear and you’ll be presented with a lot of applications that you can install, organized by category. You can quickly find an application by typing in the first few letters of its name (while the application list is focused), clicking on one of the categories to trim down the list, or by entering a few keywords in the search bar on top.

Tick the checkboxes of the applications you want to install and click Apply. After the applet downloads the package files and installs them, no questions asked (no pesky options which you’ll ignore and clcik Next anyway).

Synatic Package Manager

Installing GNOME Raw Thumbnailer via Synaptic

Synaptic functions much the same way as the Add Remove Programs, except it displays the packages themselves instead of the application. Most applications are composed of multiple packages, though you don’t have to worry about that because when you choose to install a package (ex. miro), it automatically prompts to install all the dependencies (packages which miro needs to run). Go ahead, try it for yourself. Oh, and as with the Add/Remove Programs method, there are still no pesky questions aside from the “Apply The Following Changes?” confirmation. Whereas the Add/Remove Programs… applet offers you a user-friendly interface to pimp out your Ubuntu box, Synaptic offers you a way of choosing specific packages to install (more often than not, instructions on the net will tell you specific packages to install), while still remaining relatively user-friendly.

Debian Packages (.deb files)

Installing the Skype .deb

This method is perhaps the most familiar to Windows users:

1. Download the deb file (Win users might be more familiar with the term installer)
2. Run the deb file
3. Agree to the End User License Agreement (EULA)
4. Select destination folder and click Next
5. Select Full or Custom Install. If Custom, select the appropriate options.
6. Click Install

My bad, there are no steps 3, 4, and 5.

Aptitude

Aptitude is the command-line utility used for installing packages. Now before you go dissing off Aptitude because it’s a terminal command, consider that when you’re installing a lot of programs at once (or following instructions off the net), it’s quite faster and easier to type (or paste) in the command-line sudo aptitude install blender miro mirthkit scummvm filelight deluge frozen-bubble than it is to find and select those 7 applications.

Source Code

When worse comes to worst, you can install most open source applications by performing the following steps:

1. Downloading the source code (usually distributed as a .tar.gz file)
2. Extracting it (Right-click > Extract here… or tar -xzf file.tar.gz)
3. Entering the extracted folder via the terminal
4. sudo aptitude install build-essential if you haven’t done so already
5. Typing in ./configure
6. Typing in make
7. Typing in sudo make install
8. If you want your program to be removable via Synaptic/Aptitude, use sudo checkinstall -D. This will create a package first before installing it.

A more thorough explanation of the compile process can be found eleswhere on the Internet. Just Google it.

A Word About Dependencies

One of the fundamental differences between programs in Unix/Mac/Linux and Windows is the way a program is packaged. As you install more and more applications, you’ll notice that fully-functional programs only use up a few kilobytes, sometimes only a few megabytes, and you might begin to wonder how Linux programs get to be so small when compared to their Windows counterparts.

This is because of one of the unwritten rules in writing programs for Linux, writing many small applications with a single purpose rather than 1 massive application that does many, allows many programs to use and share libraries or even other programs. These libraries or programs that an application uses are called dependencies. In Windows, save for a few Windows DLLs, each application needs to include everything in its installers (haven’t you ever wondered why you’d hardly find any CD installers for Linux?).

There is a term called dependency hell. I personally experienced this back when I was using Red Hat. It describes what happens when you have an application with several dependencies, where each dependency has a few more dependencies themselves or is dependent on a specific version of an application. Thankfully, the package manager for Ubuntu (and Debian for that matter) is very robust in automatically handling these dependencies for you.

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

So for now, I’ll just leave you with an excerpt from late breaking news that Apple is getting sued for iTunes

Internet rights champions have accused Apple of stifling free speech by bullying OdioWorks into ending online sharing of ways to get iPods to work with music websites other than iTunes…

…At the heart of the issue is the BluWiki website that details ways to get Apple’s popular iPhones and iPod MP3 players to synchronize music and video files with media at services such as Songbird, Banshee, Rockbox, and Winamp…

…Apple zealously guards iTunes’ status as an exclusive content delivery and management tool for iPod and iPhone hardware.

“Apple’s legal threats against BluWiki are about censorship, not about protecting their legitimate copyright interests,” said EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann.

Full article at Yahoo!News

All I can say is I’m not surprised and actually expecting it. These days, consumers can no longer be bullied into a monopoly the likes of how Microsoft dominated the 90′s. Personally, I’ve never used iTunes software with my 3rd-gen iPod Nano. As an Ubuntu user, I’ve initialized it in Linux and use Rhythmbox and GTKPod for managing my music and videos. I’ll teach you guys how to do that next time. Till then!

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

…Local retailer Puregold is deploying a Linux-based point-of-sale or POS system, as it looks to cutting down costs on security while expanding its network of stores…Puregold has ordered more than 2,000 licenses of TPLinux software, according to Paderborn, Germany-based Wincor Nixdorf, which sells niche solutions for banks and retail firms…

…“We wanted to cut the cost of buying anti-virus licenses and save on the cost of the license of (Microsoft) Windows per POS,” said Ruel Magat, Puregold’s IT Manager…

Read the rest of the article: http://technology.inquirer.net/infotech/infotech/view/20090416-199780/RP-retailer-goes-for-Linux-based-system

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

Add the countdown for your site

Last night, I upgraded my laptop to Intrepid Ibex, just about a week before the newest version of Ubuntu, Jaunty Jackelope, comes out. Go figure. But before I could perform the upgrade, I was warned that my 7gig root partition on my small 40gig hard drive needed a few more free space. So I was wondering where that free space went; it couldn’t be because I installed the XFCE window manager (which I removed anyway). From Tombuntu, I learned that I could free up more space by removing old unused kernels.

How much free space? I freed 757megs by removing 6 old unused kernels!

Why do you get unused kernels anyway? It’s like a service pack or firmware upgrade, only instead of getting it thrice in…oh…a decade, you get them every few months or so. When a new Linux kernel is released, it contains several bug fixes, new drivers (so you won’t ever need your driver discs again), and improvements to OSes in all of Linux land, regardless of race, religion, or distribution. For safety, your old kernel is kept safe, just in case the new kernel won’t boot up. My Hardy Heron laptop had gathered 7 kernels (including the present) since April of LAST YEAR (In contrast, WinXP SP1 came out 2002, SP2 on 2004, and SP3 just 2008)!

Removing Old Kernels In Synaptic Package Manager

First up, check which kernel  you have by running the following command in a terminal:

uname -r

You’ll get something like “2.6.27-11-generic” which is your current running kernel. Now go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.

Search for “linux-images” or click on the “Status” button and choose “Installed” to list only installed packages and scroll down for the linux-image-2.6.2X-XX-generic” packages. DO NOT mark your currently running kernel!

Click on their green boxes and select “Mark for Removal”.

After you’ve marked all old kernels for removal, click on apply.

References

• Remove Ubuntu Kernels You Don’t Need
• Wikipedia – Windows XP Service Packs

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

So today, I’ll be telling you not only the top 5 things I miss in Windows, but also the top 5 things I miss in GNU/Linux.

DISCLAIMER: Many of you will disagree. Some of you will give suggestions. These are my own experiences, based on what I use my computers for. You’re daily activity and workflow will differ from mine.

THINGS I MISS IN WINDOWS

1. See Your IP Address Quickly Without Opening A Terminal

See Your Connection Details With The Support Tab

In Windows XP, you double-click the LAN icon in the system tray (you have to set the “Display Icon in System Tray When Connected” in the connection properties, but you only have to do this once) and the local area connection dialog pops-up. If you go to the Support tab, you can find your connection’s information including IP address and subnet there.

2. Middle-click scroll

Yes, the middle-mouse button doesn’t scroll your browser or application in Ubuntu. I’ll tell you why later. While it is possible to set this in Linux,  (heck, practically ANYTHING can be set somehow), there is no fancy GUI way to do it so it’s definitely not for the lesser-experienced. The middle-mouse button is useful for those lazy days when you’re surfing the web and  just don’t want to scroll that mouse wheel.

3. Adobe/Macromedia Flash Yes, I know you can go to YouTube, Miniclip, and everything plays fine. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the Windows-only application that lets you make those Flash applications. Flash 8 and Flash MX both have Platinum ratings for Wine, meaning that they do work almost flawlessly in Linux under Wine.  But personally, and this is a really subjective thing, I would prefer a native port or an equivalent. For most applications, I’ve gotten by with a Linux equivalent, and most perform even better than their Windows counterparts. But it seems strange to me that there is no worthy equivalent for Flash. Heck, I don’t even need the CS3 features, just basic animation and even ActionScript 1.0 would do, but alas the closest thing we have is the long-dead F4L project.

4. Drivers for Weird Devices I really want a device driver for my 1-Seg TV tuner (ahem, driver writers, please get in touch with me). Don’t know what 1-Seg is? Thought so. Linux has no problem handling video cards, sound cards, webcams, and in recent months even wireless support has improved greatly. But there will always be that uncommon device that only a minority would have and that only has Windows drivers. And in my case, it was made by a Taiwanese vendor whose email link at their website isn’t even working!

THINGS I MISS IN LINUX

1. Compiz Fusion

Compiz Fusion with Desktop Cube and 3D Windows Plugins

Oftentimes I find myself moving my mouse to the upper-right corner of my screen because I want to see all the windows I have open. It always ends up in disappointment because sadly, not even Aero can provide such feature. In fact, Vista’s Aero doesn’t really provide anything useful, or new for that matter, to the table as it was meant to just prettify your desktop, and at a higher performance cost. For a list of Compiz features, take a look at its Wikipedia page. And then take a look at the Windows Aero page.

2. Built-in FTP program that doesn’t suck Say it with me, “MS Windows’ FTP program sucks!” Didn’t know that Windows has a built-in FTP program? Well, it’s more like a built-in plugin for Windows Explorer that’s stuck in the tar pits of the stone age. You just type in ftp://yourFtpSite.com in the address bar. I can’t stress enough that it sucks. A few examples:

• In FTP sites where log-in is required, you are plopped onto some sort of limbo directory and you have to Right-click and select Login As… to actually log-in.
• When you Right-click > Properties a file, all you’ll get is the size and permissions. No EXIF data for images, no codec info for music, basically nothing useful.
• Try dragging and dropping, copy-pasting between directories, or any of that stuff you’d come to expect from a modern OS, and you’ll be disappointed because it won’t work in Windows.
• Want to edit files directly from your FTP? Again, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

So fire up your Nautilus and log on to your FTP, because in Linux you can proudly say “Yes! We Can!” to all of these.

3. A Codec Manager

Automatic Codec Searching That Actually Works

When you play a DivX video in Windows Media Player and you haven’t installed the codec yet, WMP will offer to search for a codec for you…and it will fail you every single time! Back in the day, the best way to be able to play all those videos and mp3s was to download the Gordian Knot Codec pack or some other codec pack.

There is no more need to manually download and install codecs one by one for DivX, XVid, Ogg Vorbis and Theora, MP3s. In the modern age, you use Ubuntu, double-click on your media file, and if you don’t have the codec, Ubuntu will tell you and offer to install it for you.

4. Driver Support

I’ve been asked by quite a few Windows-using friends, “how did you find drivers for your hardware?” My answer is, “I don’t have to”. I’ve said this a couple of times in previous posts. I no longer need driver CDs. For all of you out there, go check out your drawers, computer tables, etc. Are your driver CDs still eating up precious space? If you think so, go ahead and throw them away because the only CD you’ll be needing from now on is your Ubuntu CD (maybe your Warcraft CD, too).

While Windows does have a few drivers built-in, in most cases your PC or PC parts came with a couple of driver discs for a good reason. And hardware experts will almost always recommend that you use the manufacturers’ own proprietary drivers instead of the ones made by Microsoft. Go figure.

Back then, and even today, device manufacturers wrote their drivers exclusively for Windows. And the Linux people had to resort to their own skillz to reverse-engineer or communicate with the hardware vendor and write their own device drivers in open-source fashion. In my opinion, I think it was precisely because of this that Linux driver support is so good: Linux users with their hardware + Linux device driver writers far outnumber the employees at Microsoft. And they don’t do it for money, they do it to make their hardware work well.

5. Middle-click paste

Yes, I know I said I missed middle-click scrolling in Windows, but considering that I still had my trusty mouse-wheel, middle-click pasting turns you from one lazy middle-clicking-net-surfing couch potato to a highly-productive middle-click-pasting l33t hax0r!

What is middle-click pasting anyway? Well, normally you would:

1. Select text
2. right-click
3. Click copy
4. Right-click on destination
5. Click paste

With middle-click pasting it’s reduced to

1. Select text
2. Middle-click on destination

That’s 3 whole steps removed, increasing your speed by 60%! Even middle-click scrolling can’t beat that.

6. Easy music preview with mouseover

Do you have lots of music files, say voice recordings or even previewing the quality of an MP3 you just downloaded, and you need to preview them? Forget opening each one of them in Media Player. Just roll your mouse over it and it’ll play! Assuming you’ve installed the right codec of course, but that isn’t really a problem because Ubuntu has it’s own codec manager!

7. Always On Top-ify ANY program

Sure, Yahoo! Messenger, Winamp, and a handful of programs have the “Always On Top” feature, but if you’re typing a document or creating a 3D model or whatever and you need to constantly look at a reference, being able to “Always On Top-ify” that Notepad sure would save you from the dizzy of alt+tabbing. Well, if you’re using GNOME (the default window manager of Ubuntu), you can now say with me, “Yes, we can!”.

Just right click on the program on the taskbar or its title bar and choose “Always On Top” and you can work while keeping that chat window with your honey or never missing a beat while that Totem Video Player is playing the latest CSI DVD you just got.

Ok, I really intended to do a 5-on-5, but try as I might, I could only think of 4 things for Windows and I really had to stretch it. On the other hand, it was quite easy for me to think of stuff for Ubuntu. I hope you guys find this info useful. If there are any Mac users out there, I’d love to hear your side of the story. Hit the comments for your ideas and suggestions.

Installing A Printer In Linux

I was a Windows (power) user until a few months after I got my current job. So for the first time in years, I find a place to put my old HP Deskjet 3845 and plug it into my computer running the latest Ubuntu, 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. It was too quiet, kinda spooky, except for the little icon on the taskbar that looked like a printer. I dunno, I must’ve been too long in the Windows world. When you plug in your printer, there are no pesky popups, no dialags asking for driver CDs, not even a dialog telling you “Hey, I’m a install a printer, dawg. Hit the Next button. And after I install it, you gonna have to click on Finish. ayt?”

Printer has been added.

Was install successful? The screenshot to the left says “you betcha!” Can’t get any easier than this, except maybe Mac OS X might…maybe. Someone with a Mac, can you please tell me if it’s as easy as pie as well on your side? Coz I’m sure I can tell ol’ great granma, “Oh you got a new printer? Sure, just plug it in!”

I haven’t tried Vista. So I searched “install printer in vista” and found a nice site called Vista4Beginners. I thought the instructions would be compartively easy, since this site was for Vista Beginners, but…well you’ll just have to take a look for yourselves.

So here’s to another piece of hardware that I WON’T NEED DRIVERS for.:D

No-Driver-CD-Needed Hardware So Far (Might have forgotten something. Doesn’t really matter):

1. Motherboard/LAN/ACPI etc.
2. WiFi
3. Graphics Card
4. Sound Card
5. Touchpad
6. Touchscreen
7. HP Deskjet 3845

If you’ve long been dreaming about wielding a lightsaber in your own hands and vanquishing foes with it, this will probably be the closest experience you’ll have short of getting Jedi Training in an asylum somewhere (at least for now, we’ll see if Star Wars: Clone Wars has anything to say when it comes out). This game is exactly like what we saw in the Wii Producer Walkthrough video that we showed in one of our recent posts, only hands-on it gets so much better. In a nutshell, you get a Wiisaber and Forcechuk with the game. So as previously mentioned, Force Push is executed by quite literally performing a “push” (you push forward on your Forcechuck) and enemies go flying! Here are some more Forcechuk moves:

Force Grip: Grip your enemy (by gripping on the Z button)
Throw Enemies or (objects at enemies): Force Grip them, move them around (using the Forcechuk analog stick), then release your grip (by releasing the Z button).
Force Pummel: Grip your enemy, and wave your other hand to send objects hurtling toward your force-gripped opponent.
Force Choke: Grip your enemy, then turn your Forcechuk upside down (similar to how you would turn your hand ala Vader-style)
etc.

Now isn’t that intuitive?
Wiisaber moves aren’t any less spectacular either. You swing your Wiisaber right, left, up, down, or thrust to perform the same moves. The game has a tutorial mode to get you quickly up to speed. You’ll be taught by Proxy, your droid, and none other than Vader’s hand demonstrations themselves! Pardon the screenshots, I don’t have a capture card, just a camera. And yes, you can see my reflection from the TV.

Edit: It’s pretty standard for games to vibrate during gameplay, but did I mention that the Wiisaber also emits lightsaber sounds as well? Yup! Not from your TV, from the Wii mote itself with its built-in speakers whenever you activate it or it hits something like another lightsaber. Can’t believe I forgot to mention this.

Krome Studios did an excellent job with designing the controls. The point here is to maximize, not use for the sake of using. Imagine if you ran by “jogging” both controllers. Thankfully, Krome was SMART enough not to fall down that dark path and just used the nunchuck analog stick for movement.

Sadly, the Wii version does not have Euphoria or DMM, or even an attempt to mimic these technologies. That’s not to say there aren’t a lot of objects flying around, getting thrown, or getting destroyed. The second level boss fight with Jedi Master Gen. Rahm Kota is particularly beautiful (see the video below); it takes place in a TIE-Fighter Construction Facility control room. As the intense battle of two powerful wielders of the force ensues, you’ll have to sometimes stop and marvel (at the risk of your own demise) the surroundings, especially the large glass window that cracks and sends out shards of glass as one of you gets slammed into it. The battle ends in a climactic finish with a large and dazzling display of the destructive power of the force as wielded by the Secret Apprentice.

The Wii game also sports a Duel Mode where you get to fight with another player. At the start, you’ll only have access to the Secret Apprentice, Darth Vader (!), and Rahm Kota. But as you play the Story mode, you’ll be able to unlock other characters, including Ep. 3 Anakin, Darth Maul (no dual-saber though),  Obi-Wan, Qui-gon Jinn, as well as the Secret Apprentice with different costumes. Although, cheating might be rampant as in the following example dialog:
Player 1: Damn it! Why the heck did you push me for?!
Player 2: That was a force push.

As BlendGames points out, Krome “will be focusing the game mechanics around motion control.” In essence, there will be 5 versions of the game (as was covered in our last post’s video): Xbox360/PS3 versions (with DMM and Euphoria), Wii (Duel-mode, motion control), PS2 (Jedi Trials), PSP (play historic missions), and DS (made by N-Gage. No news on this one). So which version do you get? According to LucasArts, you’ll have a different, unleashed experience on all platforms. The first mission on Kashyyyk, for example, is a night-time raid on the Wii version (Here’s a video of Vader fighting the Rogue Jedi in the attack) while it’s day-time in the PS3 version. The Wii will have 5 more levels, and the level design will also be different. Even the Junk Titan seems different in design (PS3: Here Wii: Here).

Basically, if you prefer trees that splinter, metal that bends, and storm-troopers that panic, get the amped-up graphics of the XBox360/PS3 version. But if you like to really get unleashed wielding force powers, as well as playing head-to-head against another player, get the Wii version. If you’re an on-the-go type, get one of the handheld versions. And since most of you probably have a PS2 as well, be sure to pick it up as well. I would. Right now, I’m tempted to buy an XBox360 just to see DMM and Euphoria in action.

I highly recommend that you get the Wii version. If you’re local retailer doesn’t have it yet, you can get one from Play-Asia and say no to piracy. Mine arrived around a week after I ordered it. For now, I’ll leave you with these two videos: The first one is a gameplay video on the Wii, all the way up to a spectacular boss battle at the end. The second video is a compilation of clips from the PS3 version of the game. Enjoy! I’ve got more foes to send flying in the air.
Wii Version Gameplay

PS3 Video Clips

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Miro Video Player

I know a lot of people who love watching videos at YouTube. And among them, there are also plenty who like downloading their favorite videos. The problem though is that YouTube doesn’t freely provide this service. Instead they have to rely on Firefox extensions, download websites (which are either full of ads, possibly virus-laden, or just plain dubious), and other such hacks.

That was how I found Miro. I’ve been using Miro for about a year now, and it has improved over the past year in terms of both usability and stability. But Miro is more than just another YouTube downloader. Advertised as an Internet TV player, it does what it says and does it well.

Downloading YouTube Videos

Downloading Videos

With Miro’s integrated video search feature, you can search videos from YouTube, Daily Motion, Veoh, and other video websites without starting your browser. You then just choose your search results and Miro will start downloading them into your library. I find this feature really nice, especially when downloading a long or large video, when I want to show something to some friends, or when I’m just too busy to watch them immediately. WIth the video in my library, I can load it up anytime at my convenience, whether I’m on the train or relaxing after cooking/eating dinner.

Internet TV with Miro

Viewing The Contents of a Channel

Miro comes with a few default channels and lets you add more channels. There are plenty of channels to choose from the integrated Miro Guide, which offers you some of its recommendations or you can search for a particular interest. Miro uses the open RSS standard for its channels, so it’s compatible with practically all feeds on the internet, including iTunes podcasts.

The beauty of using channels is that you can set it to auto-download New content or All content to download even old videos you haven’t seen yet. For example, I am subscribed to the WebbAlert channel, which offers an almost-daily 5-minute round-up of what’s new on the Internet and computing in general. When I get home and turn on my computer and Miro, it will automatically download new episode(s) if any, for my viewing pleasure, at my own leisure. It’s like turning on your TV to your favorite daily program, only you’re not bound by stiff schedules.

More Cool Features

Video Playback

Miro’s core functionalities are wonderfully complemented by the options that Miro’s intellgent engineers came up with.

Afraid you’ll run out of disk space? That shouldn’t be a problem when using Miro. You can easily set Miro to make sure to leave a gigabyte or two. And if space is a problem, the expire feature comes in very handy. Some people unfamiliar with this concept might be wary at first, but trust me, you’re not going to be watching last week’s podcast episodes anyway. YouTube videos also expire in the default 6 days, but you can choose to keep a video indefinitely by clicking on the “keep” button. Of course, there’s also a “delete” button, in case you downloaded a loser video or this week’s podcast episode just sucks.

Each channel also displays the number of unwatched videos you have, which conveniently turns into a play button when you move your mouse over it, giving you instant access to unwatched content. There’s also a “New” item in the sidebar. Just like the channels, it displays the number of unwatched videos across all your channels and clicking it plays it. By default Miro is set to play all videos consecutively in a section (be it a channel, New, or your library), but if you prefer watching one at a time (like me), you can turn it off in the options.

Miro is available for GNU/Linux, Mac, as well as Windows. Download it now from http://www.getmiro.com

While you’re downloading Miro, click on over here to read more about how Miro does what it does. And if you’re interested in making your own videos or channels for Miro, http://makeinternettv.org is a good resource for information.

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Breaking Barriers

Do you tire of reformatting your computer so that it can be set up with the prescribed environment determined by your superior or client? How about the hassle of making sure that there is a backup copy of your past project? Is quality assurance testing a pain because you have to reset your environment over and over again?

Well I did tire of that hassle. And I also tired of having to run my computer on a specific OS, just because that was what the task prescribed. So I went out and used a few proven tools to remedy the situation, which will be what this guide will be all about.

Installing VMWare Player

Virtual machines is the name of the game, and is the key to this modern workspace. Software that enables you to run virtual machines, such as VMWare’s VMPlayer or VMServer or Innotek’s (now Sun’s) Virtualbox, have been around for quite some time now. However, aside from system administrators, many people don’t know about them. And even less know how to use them to their utmost potential.

We will be installing VMWare’s VMPlayer for this tutorial. If you choose to install VMWare Server or Sun’s Virtualbox, that’s ok as well, although set up will be a bit different.

1. First, head on over to http://www.vmware.com/player and download the latest version of VMWare Player.
2. After you have downloaded the tarball (for Linux), extract it to a directory. It will create a directory called vmware-player-distrib.
3. Open a terminal and go inside the vmware-player-distrib directory. From there, type sudo ./vmware-install.pl
4. The guided installer will then proceed to ask you a few questions about your hardware. For most cases, pressing Enter for all of the questions should suffice.

After that, you will now have a VMWare Player launcher in the Applications menu under System Tools. But that won’t do us much good until we have a virtual machine ready for use.

To create a virtual machine for VMWare Player, you can either use a virtual machine created with VMWare Server, you can download a preconfigured virtual appliance from the VMWare website (I suggest you take a look, there are a lot of appliances for a lot of different needs, and it’ll eliminate the need for the next steps), or use a handy litte utility at EasyVMX. WIth EasyVMX, you can configure a Virtual Machine, set the size and number of hard drives, number of CPUs to use, network cards, floppies, CD-ROMs, practically everything you need.

Once you’re at the EasyVMX website, there are 3 flavors of their Virtual Machine Creator: the regular EasyVMX, the SuperSimple, and the EasyVMX v2.0.

For those who just want this part done quickly and painlessly, choose the Super Simple creator and choose around 15GB or more for the disk space for WinXP (Obviously, you’ll need more for Vista).

For those would like to customize a little, EasyVMX v2.0 will offer the most choices, but for most ends and needs, the regular one would suffice.

Depending on your computer’s memory, change the Memory Size to something greater than 192 (minimum for Windows XP) as long as you will leave around 256MB for your host. (Ex.: PC memory = 1024MB; 1024 – 256 = at most 768 for guest VM). One good reason to use a GNU/Linux distribution as a host is that 256MB is plenty and will give a decent performance while your XP VM might still be thirsty for more memory with 256MB of RAM.

Set the hard drive to around 20GB. Add additional drives if you prefer. Again, thankfully your GNU/Linux host uses less than 5GB for the OS, giving you plenty of room.
Note: When you create a virtual drive, it doesn’t immediately occupy 20GB on your disk. Rather, as your VM uses more and more of the disk space, so does the virtual drive occupies more space on your host.

Keep all other settings at default. If you have an ISO image of the OS that you want to install, be sure to check on the ISO checkbox under CD-ROM.

Click on the Create Virtual Machine button and you will be given a zip file for download containing the configuration file as well as your virtual disk(s). Extract that to a directory and start up your VMWare Player.

Important: EasyVMX will only create the virtual disk and configuration file for your VM. You will still need a LEGAL copy of your intended OS. Also, Be sure to choose the correct number of CPUs. Less than the actual number of CPUs and your VM won’t be able to take advantage of your mult-core processor. Anymore and it just won’t work.

Installing A Virtual OS

If you have an ISO of the OS you’re planning to install, put a copy of it into the directory containing your VM configuration file. Assuming you had checked the ISO checkbox in EasyVMX, when you start this virtual machine, it should boot up from this ISO. Otherwise, place the OS’s disc into your CD drive.

1. From Applications > System Tools, click on VMWare Player
2. When the VMWare Player window appears, click Open An Existing Virtual Machine
3. Navigate to the directory where you extracted your virtual machine
4. It will now start up. If you have put the OS disc into your CD drive, it should now boot up from there.
5. Install the OS as you would on a normal computer. Ubuntu Installation, Windows Installation

Enabling Networking

After starting up your VMWare Player, you’ll notice a few buttons at the top of the window. These buttons can be toggled on off to activate/deactivate peripherals and USB devices. The Ethernet button allows you to choose from 3 different configurations when you right-click on it, Bridged, NAT, and Host-only.

Choose bridged and restart your virtual machine for good measure. You can skip to the next section if you don’t need a brief explanation about the three ethernet configurations.

Important: In a restricted static IP setting, such as in an office, be sure to get an IP address for your VM from your system administrator, since your host OS and EACH guest VM will need a unique IP address each.

Host-only is used if you want your virtual machine to be able to see your guest machine ONLY. Imagine this as like connecting both your host OS and guest VM to the same switch, but not connected to the rest of the network or DSL modem. It won’t have access to other machines on your network, nor the internet for that matter.

NAT stands for Network Address Translation. Similar to Host-only, your virtual machine will be connected to a virtual switch, but this the switch is connected to the rest of the network. In a NAT networking, your host OS sits on the network, acting like a router, while your guest VM sits on a separate network behind this router (your host OS).

Bridge on the other hand is completely different. With bridged networking, both the host OS and the guest VM sits on the same network each with their own IP addresses. Other computers can access the VM directly and vice-versa. Internet access is also direct.

For more info on VMWare’s networking setup, visit this article on VM Weekly.

Sharing Files and Folders

Need to share files between your host and guest? Two simple choices: create a shared folder in your guest VM or create a shared folder o your host OS. It really depends on your preference. Setting up a directory on your host means no matter which VM you’re using, you’ll still have only one share. On the other hand, a localized specific shared folder per VM means the contents of the shared folder will most likely be related to the VM in question; no mix-up of files from different VMs. It’s all up to how you manage them.

If you are using Ubuntu to share a folder, follow these steps:

1. Right click on the folder to share and click Sharing Options
2. Check the box labeled “Share this folder”. If you do not have sharing services installed yet, it will ask for your permission to do it for you.
3. Once that’s done you can select either SMB (Windows share) or NFS (Unix share). Choose SMB so your Windows VM can access it.
4. Check the box labeled “Allow other people to write in this folder” because you are sharing it to exchange files.
5. Check the box labeled “Guest access” so you won’t need to create a user account anymore.
6. When that’s done, click “Create Share”

Extra tip: to connect to a shared folder from Ubuntu, open an address bar in Nautilus or on the Desktop by pressing Ctrl-L and then typing smb://hostNameOrIPAddress

Backing-Up Everything

Now we’ve finished setting up the dirty work, we can now start to reap the benefits of this setup.

Ok, let’s say that we have set up a Windows XP guest VM and we’ve already set up all of the basics like the IP address, registering your Windows copy, installing anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, email clients, and MS Office (sure is a lot of basic setup for a Windows box, huh?).

We’ll want to make this our “starting point”, so that everytime we need a new environment, we can use this initial state and we won’t have to go through all those tedious setup and concentrate on setting up your project-specific workspace.  How do you do it? It’s quite simple.

1. Shutdown your guest VM
2. Go to the folder where all your virtual machine’s files are stored
3. Copy that folder, and name it something appropriate, like WinXP_base.

Need to create a backup? Again it’s quite simple. Just follow the three steps above.

Need to restore from a backup? Again, simple. Copy or your backup and open it up in VMPlayer.

Starting a new project? Again, the 3 steps.

You get the point.

Extra Tip: When making VM copies for your different projects, it would be very useful to change the Display Names of each VM. That way, they won’t all appear as “WinXP” in the VMPlayer. To do this, open up the .vmx file found in the folder of your VM, and change the value of displayName

Using Terminal Server Client (TSC)

Most of the time, I control my VMs via the Terminal Server Client instead of directly with the VMPlayer. I do this for a few important reasons:

• Sometimes, I want my VM to be just a small window. Other times I want it full screen. Using TSC allows me to quickly change between display sizes (or display color-depth) without changing the actual display settings on the VM.
• It performs faster in my experience.
• Keyboard and mouse input are locked to a VMPlayer session, and you have to press Ctrl-Alt together to give back control to your host; With TSC, you simply move your mouse in and out of the window.

You have to turn on Remote Desktop in your guest desktop. Also, it won’t work if you don’t set a user password.

Workspace Separation

By keeping non-project-related programs running in your host OS not only means less distraction (specially when viewing full-screen), it also means not disconnecting your IM client while you’re restarting because your Windows is starting to bog down. A restart no longer means a trip to the pantry to get some coffee, you still get to do something else on your host OS, be it researching for a technical paper or preparing slides for a presentation.

Extra tip: As an added “boss button”, when you’re using your VM at full screen, no one would notice that it’s a VM. If your boss ever figured out that you were browsing blogs at another workspace, this’ll probably take them longer to figure out.

Pros and Cons

Naturally, there are advantages and disadvantages to this kind of setup. But in my case, the pros outweigh the cons.

The downside to all these multi-OS multi-tasking is, you will need a pretty decent computer to do this kind of setup if you do not want impact on your output. In particular, since you’ll be running at least 2 systems at the same time (1 host + 1 guest), you will need ample amount of memory for both. The number or size of your virtual machines is also dependent on how much disk space you have. There is also some performance impact, though it is becoming less and less apparent with multi-core processors. Although, on my 600Mhz Kohjinsha with 512MB of RAM, I was still able to run a WinXP to perform some basic operations. It makes my computer a dog slow, though, but it works.

Now if the pros weren’t already obvious, perhaps the most significant pro is the flexibility in using whatever operating system you desire and the ability to quickly and completely backup that system. When archiving old projects, you no longer just back up the project files, you back up the whole system, environment setup and all. That means, several years down the road if ever you need to revisit those old projects, you just take out that virtual machine out of storage and run it. Workspace separation also has its advantages, which can be used for increasing productivity, or improving the quality of breaks.

For system administrators, the advantage is obvious. Using only one physical hardware, they’d be able to run several different servers, minimizing costs, maximizing server utilization, and making the world a greener place by consuming less energy.

Lastly, of course, with a GNU/Linux host, now you can keep playing with your Compiz-Fusion 3D cube and wobbly windows, hehe…

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