Ubuntu Hardy: Totally impressive !

I just upgraded to Ubuntu Hardy and I can tell it is a pure marvel. The upgrade from Gutsy to Hardy went extremely well and smoothly. I did a sudo do-dist-upgrade -s, so the system was upgraded package by package. When it finished, I didn’t lose any of my previous preferences and applications and had them upgraded and perfectly working.

With this new version, I’m completely impressed by the quality of Gnome 2.22 desktop, Firefox 3 beta 5, the new Openoffice 2.4 and so much more things like the clock applet displaying weather and wind in your precise location and Pulseaudio bringing you personalized volume control for each running application !

The system became so coherent in its appearance and functionalities; the applications quality is so high that it is hard to imagine we get it for free ! (I think I should contribute too).

The more Linux is evolving, the more I realize it is undeniably superior to windows and stands the comparison with osx in every aspect.

Thanks so much for the Linux and opensource communities for offering us really high quality software.

You can go and get your Ubuntu Hardy copy here. (for now it’s a release candidate, wait for 24th April if you want to get the final version)

Enabling high resolution console in Ubuntu

I personally don’t like the usplash displayed at bootup/shutdown in Ubuntu, I rather prefer seeing console messages. However, the low resolution of the console make the displayed fonts too big which is a little bit ugly. To enable high resolution console, open a terminal and type :

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer

then comment the line : blacklist vesafb

Save the modifications and close the text editor. Now, still in a gnome terminal, type :

sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules

At the end of the file, add these two separate lines :

fbcon
vesafb

Close the edited file and type :

sudo update-initramfs -u

Finally, open your menu.lst file :

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

In the kernel line for ubuntu delete ’splash’ (so you no longer have the usplash displayed) and add vga=791 (to have a 1024*768 resolution)

That’s it ! One last tip, to have more messages displayed you can change ‘quiet’ to ’services’ or to ‘verbose’ in the kernel line.

Automatically changing wallpaper relatively to daytime in Ubuntu

Fedora 8 introduced a nice feature which is automatically changing wallpaper relatively to daytime. Here’s how to have this cool feature in Ubuntu (and any other linux distribution) !
Select four wallpapers, one to be displayed at sunrise, the second during the day, third at sunset and the last at night.
Then, in a terminal, create a bash script as follows :

gedit .change.sh

You’ll get the newly created .change.sh file opened in a text editor.
Copy the following text in the file (Change the PATH-TO-**-PICTURE with the appropriate path) :

#!/bin/bash
HOUR=$(date +%H)
case "$HOUR" in
04|05|06|07)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-SUNRISE-PICTURE
;;
08|09|10|11|12|13|14|15)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-DAY-PICTURE
;;
16|17|18 )
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-SUNSET-PICTURE
;;
*)
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename PATH-TO-NIGHT-PICTURE
;;
esac


As you can tell, this script sets the appropriate picture depending on the system’s current hour.
Now we’ll create a cron job, which is a linux way to automatically run tasks.

gedit .change.cron

This will open the text editor to edit our cron job.
Copy the following in the text editor (Replace YOUR-HOME-FOLDER by your home folder’s absolute path):

* 4,8,16,19 * * * YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.sh

As you see, the cron task will lauch our previously created script at 4am, 8am, 4pm and 7pm to set the adequate wallpaper.
(Of course, you can change the hours at your convenience).
Now, let’s add these tasks to our gnome session so that they are automatically launched every time we login.
Open the System>Preferences>Sessions menu.
* Click the Add Button
Name: Changing Wallpaper Cron
Command: crontab PATH-TO-YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.cron
Click Ok
Now the job of automatically changing wallpaper is set as an automated job every time we login.
We also have to add the script at session startup so that the correct wallpaper is initialized when we login. (This means, that if you login at e.g. 5:30pm, you’ll have the right wallpaper for that time). To do that,
* Click again the Add Button
Name: Initializing Wallpaper
Command: PATH-TO-YOUR-HOME-FOLDER/.change.sh
Click Ok
Here you are ! Your desktop wallpaper is living and reflecting the daytime!
Send your commentaries if you have any difficulty.

Training Course

I am currently doing my final training course in order to get a software engineer diploma. The subject of the training course is simulating mobile stations roaming in cellular networks (GSM). I will be using Agile Unified Process as a development methodology, UML as a modelling language and Java as a programming language (Voyager Edge as a mobile agent platform). I thought it would be a good thing to blog about the project while doing it. First, it will be a nice way for me to summarize my progress. Second, it can be a helping resource for people doing similar projects. Finally, I hope I will get your feedback and your precious advices in areas you’re maybe more experienced in than I am. So, from now on, for every significant step I make, I will try to give a brief snapshot in this blog.