Replace Unity Interface

I know I am not alone when I say that I don't like the new unity interface. I am using the Ubuntu Netbook Edition on my Asus EEEpc and my biggest complaint is that it is too slow. I like the idea of a better interface, but they have a long way to go to make it usable. Until then I will be sticking with the standard GNOME interface which is still included to use. I am going to show you how to change the default session to be the regular desktop session.

• Open the Login Screen Settings dialog box.
• Change the bottom dropdown box to be Ubuntu Desktop Edition as the default session (you can see I already have mine changed). You may need to press the Unlock button and supply your password to be able to change this setting.

•  You should just be able to log out and back in and then you will get the familiar GNOME desktop.

This will not actually remove Unity from your installation so at what time you think you might want to use it again you could. I've read a few posts that take you through the steps to remove it, but I don't see it necessary since it can be easily disabled through the login screen.

Install Cherokee from PPA

Lately I've been researching different options for web servers and I've been keeping my eye on Cherokee. I've been watching it for some time and have seen that the project is very active, but so far I haven't tried it out. After checking that the Ubuntu repositories did not contain the latest version Cherokee I decided to look for a PPA. Thankfully there is an up to date PPA with packages for all the latest distributions of Ubuntu. Here are the steps that got me set up on Ubuntu 10.04:

1. Add the PPA to our sources.list. If you are running 9.10 and above you can run this command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cherokee-werbserver/ppa

But if you are running 9.04 or lower you will need to add them manually:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/cherokee-webserver/ppa/ubuntu UBUNTU_VERSION main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/cherokee-webserver/ppa/ubuntu UBUNTU_VERSION main

2. Now update sources and install Cherokee. It is only necessary to install cherokee. The other two packages are for SSL and server statistics respectively.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cherokee libcherokee-mod-libssl libcherokee-mod-rrd

Once apt-get finishes you should have a fully functioning Cherokee web server. If you fire up your browser and head over to http://IP_ADDRESS_OF_MACHINE/ (e.g. http://localhost/ if you you are using the same machine that you installed on). You should be greeted with the Cherokee default page which is slightly more informative than Apache's "It Works."

Now you are of course wondering how to configure Cherokee right? Well apparently you really shouldn't have to edit configuration files by hand (see picture last paragraph). There is a very well put together web application distributed with Cherokee called cherokee-admin. This webapp can be deployed by opening a terminal and launching this command:

sudo cherokee-admin &

This will launch the webapp and give you the username, password, and URL with which you can access it. It is meant to be launched only when you need it for security and performance reasons. That was as far as I got with my install of Cherokee, but I will be trying out Drupal, Wordpress, and other CMS systems with it to see how well it performs.

Eclipse Install with Lucid

I am merely posting this to give a quick update to the process for installing Eclipse with Lucid. It seems that the Ubuntu repositories have finally caught up with the latest release of Eclipse so there is no need to download the package off of the Eclipse website. Just a few terminal commands will do it:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install eclipse

This should work quite well and it will install Eclipse SDK 3.5.2. You can then proceed as usual with your normal set-up and install of plugins with Eclipse. Enjoy!

Using Appcelerator Titanium with Ubuntu

As anyone can tell by reading other posts in this blog, I am a programmer and I try and use various programming languages and methods all the time. I found Titanium a few months ago and started using it when it was only version 0.7. It has matured very quickly since then and it makes for an interesting platform to develop on. To describe it in a just a sentence it allows for crossplatform desktop application development using only HTML and Javascript. You can also use PHP, Python, and Ruby, but you don't have to. There is also a mobile development side that works quite well also. For a full desciption of what it can do head over to Appcelerator.com.

Follow these steps to install for Ubuntu 9.10:

1. Navigate to Appcelerator.com and click download Titanium.
2. Click on the link to download either 32-bit or 64-bit Linux. If you are unsure just use the 32-bit.
3. Extract the archive and put the extracted folder anywhere you want. Personally I have a folder where I keep any downloaded programs in my home folder.
4. There is an executable file called "Titanium Developer" inside of the extracted that you can then run and follow the directions to install it. I usually choose to install it into my home folder because I had problem with installing it anywhere else.
5. The last thing you may want to do is create a shortcut either on the desktop or in the menu so you can easily start Titanium Developer. This can be done with the alacarte program.

Go ahead and start creating your desktop programs, and relish in the fact that you did not have to use any other language besides the ones you already use for web development.

Testing Out Lucid Lynx

If you head over to http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ you can get the most recent build of Lucid Lynx. I went ahead and created a Virtual Box VM since I didn't have time to reformat my hard drive. Seems pretty stable to me, but go ahead and try it out for yourselves.

Install Gnome Do from PPA in 9.10

I always like to have the latest and greatest of Gnome Do. This can be achieved by installing from their PPA. These instructions are for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala so they may not work with older versions. Follow the steps below if you want to install Gnome Do from PPA.

1. Open System > Administration > Software Sources
2. Click Other Software tab and then click the Add button.
3. Add these two lines one by one.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

4. Click Close and then Reload. It will complain about a GPG error but we will fix that in the next steps.
5. Open up a terminal and input these commands.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 77558DD0
sudo apt-get update

6. Now you can install Gnome Do with this command.

sudo apt-get install gnome-do

Congratulations! You now will have the latest Gnome Do installed on your system. Now when the next release of Gnome Do happens you will get it right away instead of waiting for it to be put into mainstream.

Ubuntu Google Web Toolkit Setup

It's easy to get started with the Google Web Toolkit and Ubuntu 9.04. There are a couple of steps you will want to take to ensure a proper setup.

First let me start by mentioning that the easiest way to do this is to use Eclipse. Eclipse is a full-featured Java IDE. Many complain that it is too slow, crashes, etc. Since Google developed a plugin for Eclipse and most likely their software engineers are using it, I think it would be best to use it as well. Now on to the actual steps.

Get Eclipse Installed and Working

1. Don't use synaptic to install Eclipse. If you already have it installed through synaptic that's okay, but you will have two versions of Eclipse on your computer.
2. Download the latest copy of Eclipse at http://www.eclipse.org/downloads. Don't worry about all the different versions. Just download the Eclipse Classic at the bottom of the list.
3. Extract to a directory on your hard drive. I happen to put all of my programs that I install manually in a folder, /home/username/Software. This helps me keep track of all my programs I've installed manually.
4. You should be able to start Eclipse either through the command line (after you change to the directory) or by double-clicking eclipse inside of the folder.

Install Google Web Toolkit Plugin

1. Start Eclipse if you haven't already.
2. Help > Install new software...
3. Click the add button. Put GWT Plugin for name and paste in for the url:
   
   

   http://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/3.5

4. Check the boxes labeled Plugin and SDKs. 
5. Follow through the wizard. You will have to agree to the license.
6. Once you finish with that window you will want to restart Eclipse. After that you can begin working with GWT in Ubuntu.

This worked for me on 32bit and 64bit Ubuntu. Hopefully you will be able to start building your Google Web Toolkit applications in Ubuntu.