Kubuntu 13.04 Alpha 1

Stéphane Graber has announced the availability of the first alpha release of Kubuntu 13.04: "The first alpha of the 'Raring Ringtail' (to become 13.04) has now been released. This alpha features images for Edubuntu and Kubuntu. At the end of the 12.10 development cycle, the Ubuntu flavour decided that it would reduce the number of milestone images going forward and the focus would concentrate on daily quality and fortnightly testing rounds known as cadence testing. Based on that change, the Ubuntu product itself will not have an Alpha-1 release. Its first milestone release will be the final beta release on the 28th of March 2013. Other Ubuntu flavours have the option to release using the usual milestone schedule." See the release announcement and release notes for further information. Download (SHA256): raring-desktop-i386.iso (972MB, torrent), raring-desktop-amd64.iso (954MB, torrent). Alpha 1 images for Edubuntu 13.04 (download, release notes) are also available.

Top 15 Desktop Environments for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal (Alternatives to Unity)

In this article, I have collected 15 best desktop environments available for Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) that can be used as a replacement for Unity. If you are interested in good design and look for your desktop, you may try the first seven desktop environments given below. If you want speed with no interest in design and desktop look, you may start from the eighth desktop environment.

Additionally, instead of installing various desktop environments on Ubuntu 12.10, you may try the different Ubuntu flavors which are:

•     Xubuntu - XFCE desktop environment
•     Kubuntu - K Desktop environment
•     Lubuntu - LXDE

Let's now see the various desktop environments available for Ubuntu 12.10 or older:

1. GNOME Shell

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

2. KDE

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends kubuntu-desktop

3. Xfce

sudo apt-get install xfce4

4. LXDE

sudo apt-get install lxde

5. Cinnamon

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install cinnamon

6. Mate

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main" 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install mate-archive-keyring 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment

7. E17

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:hannes-janetzek/enlightenment-svn 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install e17

8. Awesome WM

sudo apt-get install awesome

9. WindowMaker

sudo apt-get install wmaker

10. Fluxbox

sudo apt-get install fluxbox

11. Blackbox

sudo apt-get install blackbox

12. Openbox

sudo apt-get install openbox

13. jwm

sudo apt-get install jwm

14. IceWM

sudo apt-get install icewm

15. fvwm

sudo apt-get install fvwm

Extra DEs

Here are some other desktop environments suggested by our readers:

- Razor-qt

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:razor-qt 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install razorqt

Note: You may also install these DEs on Linux Mint 14 or older.

Install The 'Me and My Shadow' Puzzle Game Under Ubuntu 12.10/Linux Mint 14

Me and My Shadow is a free open source puzzle game where the player has to guess how to reach the exit with the help of a shadow that will mimic your moves. On your way to the exit, you will have to jump over spikes, moving blocks, etc. The game comes with over 40 levels with the possibility to create custom ones with the help of the built-in 'Map Editor".

Here is a video trailer of the game:

Me and My Shadow Installation

The official game PPA hasn't yet updated the game to work with Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) and Linux Mint 14 (Nadia). You can alternatively install it with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/games 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install meandmyshadow

Uninstalling Me and My Shadow

To remove Me and My Shadow from your system, issue these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:upubuntu-com/games 

sudo apt-get remove meandmyshadow 

sudo apt-get update

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 Beta

Red Hat, Inc. has announced the availability of the beta release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4: "Today, Red Hat announced the beta availability of the next minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4. This release includes a broad set of updates to the existing feature set and provides rich new functionality in the areas of identity management, file system, virtualization, management, storage and productivity tools. System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) enhancements extend the interoperability experience with Microsoft Active Directory by providing centralized identity access control for Linux/Unix clients in a heterogeneous environment. pNFS client remains in technology preview, however, now delivers performance improvements with the addition of Direct I/O for faster data access." See the press release and the release notes for more details. RHEL customers wishing to test this release can download the installation DVD images from Red Hat's Software & Download Center.

Check for Bad Sectors on an Internal/External Hard Disk in Ubuntu/Linux Mint

In this tip, we will see how to use badblocks to scan/test your hard disk partitions (including USB hard drivers) for bad blocks (or bad sectors). Bad sectors are sectors that are damaged and cannot be used to store data on a hard drive. Badblocks will detect all bad blocks on your hard disk and store them in a text file so that you can use it with e2fsck to configure your OS to not store your data in these damaged sectors.

This tip can be run in the following Ubuntu/Linux Mint distributions:

• Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10 or older
• Linux Mint 14/13/12 or older

WARNING: We are not liable for any mis-use of the commands given below. Use them at your own risk!

Getting Started

To know the names of mounted hard drives and USB devices on your system, run this command:

sudo fdisk -l

To scan your hard disk for damaged sectors, run this command:

sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda1 > bad-sectors.txt

Repalce /dev/sda1 with your own device name. The text file containing all bad blocks to be generated will be named bad-sectors.txt; it will be created in the current terminal location. When the scan is complete and if bad sectors are reported, you can use the generated text file with the e2fsck command line utility using this command (hard disk must be unmounted):

sudo e2fsck -l bad-sectors.txt  /dev/sda1

You system will now ignore all bad sectors detected by badblocks. For more help about badblocks and e2fsck, run one of these commands from the terminal:

man badblocks

or

man e2fsck

Tor Browser Bundle (2.3.25-1) Released - PPA Installation Available For Ubuntu/Linux Mint

Tor Browser Bundle for Linux has been updated recently to version 2.3.25-1 which brings more improvements and security updates. Here are the packages updated in this latest release:

• Tor 0.2.3.25 (with openssl-1.0.1c, zlib-1.2.7 and libevent-2.0.20-stable)

• Firefox 10.0.11esr

• Vidalia 0.2.21

• NoScript 2.6.2

• HTTPS-Everywhere 3.0.4

The PPA is available for the following Ubuntu/Linux Mint distributions:

• Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10
• Linux Mint 14/13/12

Tor Browser Bundle Installation

Open the terminal and install Tor Browser Bundle 2.3.25-1 with these commands under a 32-bit system:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/tor 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install tor-browser 

sudo chown $USER -R ~/.tor-browser/

Under a 64-bit system, run these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/tor64 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install tor-browser 

sudo chown $USER -R ~/.tor-browser/

You can start the application from the Unity dash:

Or start it from the terminal with this command:

tor-browser

Uninstalling Tor Browser Bundle

To remove Tor Browser Bundle from your system, run the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:upubuntu-com/tor

or

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:upubuntu-com/tor64

sudo apt-get remove tor-browser 

sudo apt-get update

For manual installation, you can download the appropriate package from here.