Monday, February 2, 2009

Configuring a Dial-Up Connection in Ubuntu

Ubuntu includes some useful utilities to get your dial-up connection up and running.Here is the following ways you can connect to your dialup connection

1)Using your networking option in Ubuntu

2)using gnome-ppp

3)using kppp (For Kubuntu)

4)using wvdialconf & wvdial

5)using pppconfig & pon/poff

first thing you need to make sure your modem drivers are installed or not.If you want more details about modem drivers in ubuntu and installation check here

Now we will see 3 ways how to configure dialup connection in ubuntu

Before Starting

Before configuring Dial-up connection you need to have the following information from your ISP

1)Username

2)Password

3)Dail-in number

Configuring a Dial-Up Connection using Networking option

you can go to System—>Administration —>Networking


Once it open the application you should see the following screen

In the above screen select modem connection option and click on properties you should see the following screen

The first thing you will need to do is to enable the connection by ticking the Enable this connection box,now you need enter your ISP’s phone number as well as your username and password

Next, click on the modem tab to specify details about your modem and also configure the speaker volume. Most telephone systems use tone dialling nowadays, so make sure this is selected . I have selected the speaker volume on medium.

Now you need to click on options tab If you are using a laptop, then you will probably want to uncheck Set modem as default route to the Internet whilst you are on a LAN, otherwise you may struggle to see anything! Tick it when you are expecting to use your dial-up connection though, and Ubuntu will use this connection to get out onto the Internet.You need to select other two options checked.

Now You can use the Gnome Modem Monitor and Network Monitor panel if you want to stop, start and monitor modem connections.

Configuring a Dial-Up Connection using pppconfig

configure a connection using pppconfig, a command line utility to help you to configure specific dial-up connection settings.This is a command line based option to manage dialup connections.

Open a terminal from Applications > System Tools > Terminal and type

sudo pppconfig

Now you should see the following screen here you need to select “Create Create a connection” select ok and press enter

Here you need to enter provider name and you can leave default one and in this example i am giving “comcast” select ok and press enter

Next screen you need to select “Dynamic Use dynamic DNS” select ok and press enter

You need to select Authentication method here i am selecting “chat :Use chat for login/password :Authentication” select ok and press enter

Select login prompt option leave default select ok and press enter

Select password prompt option leave default select ok and press enter

Enter the username given to you by your ISP in this example i am using “ruchiw” select ok and press enter

Enter the password given to you by your ISP in this example i am using “myfirstpassword” select ok and press enter

Enter the modem speed as “115200″ select ok and press enter

Select method of dialing as “Tone” select ok and press enter

Enter the number to dial select ok and press enter

Choose your modem configuration method if you want to detect your modem automatically select yes otherwise select no in this example i am selecting no select ok and press enter

Select the modem port and i leave the default option select ok and press enter

Here is the complete details you have choosen for your provider connection in this example comcast

Finished the connection settings select ok and press enter

Select “Quit Exit this utility”

Exit the terminal window using the following command

exit

Connecting to your ISP

Before you connect for the first time you need to add yourself to both the dip and dialout groups by using the commands

sudo adduser YOURNAMEHERE dip

sudo adduser YOURNAMEHERE dialout

# connect to the ISP configured as “comcast”

pon comcast

# disconnect the ISP configured as “comcast”

poff comcast

If you are trying to connect as default “provider” you need to use the following commands to connect and disconnect

pon

poff

You can check the last messages generated by these commands with

# shows the (status) messages generated by pon and poff

plog

Configuring a Dial-Up Connection using gnome-ppp

GNOME PPP is an easy to use graphical dialup connection configuring and dialing tool with system tray icon support.It uses GNOME/GTK+ for its graphical interface and integrates well in GNOME desktop environment, but it can be used in other environments.

It also uses WvDial dialer as its backend, providing simple configuration via config files. You can also use plain wvdial if you don’t have X running.

Install gnome-ppp Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install gnome-ppp

This will complete the installation.

If you want to open the application go to Application—>Internet—>GNOME PPP

Once application opens you should see the following screen

In the above screen you need to click on setup to configure your settings you should see the following screen configre the modem settings

Next click on networking tab to configure network settings

Next click on options tab to configure general options

Once you have all the details enter the details you can see the following screen

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Portable Qemu Persistent Ubuntu tutorial

The main advantage to using Qemu hardware emulation as opposed to a native USB boot is that it allows you to plug your USB stick or portable hard drive into any available PC and run a complete operating system without restarting. The additional advantage of using Ubuntu's persistent feature is that you can save your personal settings, files and changes back to the stick. Qemu and persistent Ubuntu 6.10 make for a nice and simple combination. In the following tutorial we explain how to make it all work together.

Using this tutorial, Ubuntu can be run from within Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP or Vista without ever rebooting. It runs from it's own directory either on a portable device or directly from an internal hard drive if you so choose.


This tutorial explains How To Run Ubuntu 7.10 from a portable USB device or from a folder within Windows. As noted before, the advantage to using Qemu hardware emulation as opposed to a native USB boot is that you can to plug your USB stick or portable hard drive into any available Windows PC and run a completely separate Linux operating system without rebooting the Windows Host PC. In addition, by utilizing the casper persistent feature, you can save your personal settings and changes back to the img located in the installation directory and then restore those saved settings on each boot.

Using this tutorial, Ubuntu 7.10 can be run from within Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP or Vista without rebooting. Ubuntu 7.10 runs from it's own directory either on a portable USB device or directly from a folder on your Windows computer.

This is a great way to learn Linux without actually creating a partition and installing. There are quite a few Linux instructors who actually teach Linux to their students via this approach because it does not require local installation.

Qemu Portable Ubuntu 7.10 essentials:

  • Portable device with 1GB+ free space (2+GB recommended)
  • A Windows Host computer (Vista or XP)
  • Ubuntu 7.10 ISO
  • QPU710.exe

Portable Ubuntu 7.10 creation process:

  1. Download and launch QPU710.exe, a QPU710 folder is created
  2. Download the Ubuntu 7.10.iso and move it to the QPU710 folder
  3. Click the QPU710.bat file to start Ubuntu
  4. At the boot menu, press F6 to enter a custom boot option. Type persistent at the end of the boot string: add persistent to the boot options
  5. Ubuntu 7.10 should continue to boot… and save most of your settings as you work. To restore these saved settings on the next boot, simply press F6 and add persistent again.

Qemu commands:

Click within the Qemu Window to use the Ubuntu desktop

Press Ctrl+Alt to switch to and from the Host desktop

Press Ctrl+Alt+F to toggle full screen on or off

Press Ctrl+Alt+2 to switch to the Qemu Monitor (and type help for command list)

Press Ctrl+Alt+1 to switch from Qemu Monitor back to Linux

WARNING: When shutting down the Ubuntu 7.10 environment, at the prompt to remove the disk, simply press enter and wait until the progress bar has finished. It is then safe to press Ctrl+Alt and close the Window. "If you don't wait, you may corrupt your persistent image".

How to Enable Facebook Chat for Pidgin in Ubuntu

If you want to enable Facebook Chat for Pidgin in Ubuntu you need to install Facebook Chat for Pidgin plugin.This is a Facebook chat plugin for Pidgin and libpurple messengers. It connects to the new Facebook Chat IM service without the need for an API key.

Currently the plugin can log into the Facebook servers, grab the buddy list, send/receive messages, add/remove friends, receive notifications, search for Facebook friends and set your Facebook status.

Install Facebook Chat for Pidgin in Ubunt

1. First you need to download the plugin using the following command

wget http://pidgin-facebookchat.googlecode.com/files/pidgin-facebookchat-1.38.deb

2. Now you should have pidgin-facebookchat-1.38.deb package.Install this .deb package using the following command

sudo dpkg -i pidgin-facebookchat-1.38.deb

3.This will complete the installation.After installation you need to restart Pidgin! You will then have a FacebookChat option in your accounts manager dialog.