Ubuntu Sharing » Backup

Easily Build Your Own Ubuntu Distribution & Burn into Removable Device

admin — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 04:02:14 +0000

It’s necessary to build your own Ubuntu distribution and burn it as a removable Live cd/usb if your’re not only working on a single machine.

1. First build your own ubuntu distribution.

Ubuntu Builder is a simple tool to build your own distribution. It allows to download, extract, customize in many ways and rebuild your ubuntu images. You can customize i386 and amd64 images.

Download ubuntu-builder from code.google.com

Just download Ubuntu image from www.ubuntu.com. Launch Ubuntu-Builder, Select this iso and customize informations, desktop environment, click Synaptic to add/remove softwares, etc. Finally, click Build ISO to create your own distribution.

2. Use your own distribution to burn live CD or USB

There are several tools that burn Ubuntu images into removable media, running on Windows or Ubuntu Linux or muilti-platforms, such as Ubuntu Live USB Creater, Unetbootin, Win32 Disk Imager, and so forth.

They’re easy to use, just choose image and removable media and burn it.

Create Bootable Ubuntu 12.04 Live-USB on Windows

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 02:44:10 +0000

The Ubuntu live-usb created by ultraiso or unetbootin won’t boot due to the new image file since Ubuntu 10.10. It can be solved by replacing ‘vesamenu.c32′ file or editing ‘syslinux/syslinux.cfg’ to add “#” before “default vesamenu.c32″.

There’s a program Image Writer that can create bootable Ubuntu live-usb without this problem.

This utility is used to write Ubuntu img files to SD and USB cards.
Simply run the utility, point it at your img, and then select the removable device to write to.

This utility can not write CD-ROMs.

Future releases and source code available on our Launchpad project: https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer

This program is an alpha, and has no warrenty. It may eat your files, call you names, or explode in a massive shower of code. The authors take no responsibility for these possible events.

No related posts.

System Tray Indicator for Ubuntu Update Manager

admin — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:04:40 +0000

Indicator-updatemanager is small update indicator in system-tray that informs about available updates. It will disable the annoying popup ‘Update Manger’ window.

It’s in an early development stage and might still have bugs. But it works.

This is developed by Jonas Frei, and the code is hosted on launchpad.net/indicator-updatemanager. You can download and build from the source

I never really was satisfied with the update management and that the update-manager just pops up without any indication. So i made this little application which integrates in the application menu and notifies the user about updates.
To build the vala sources, you will need the following dependencies:

- aptitude
- libgtk2.0-dev
- libgconf2-dev
- libappindicator-dev
- libnotify-dev
- libglib2.0-dev
- libvala-0.12-dev
- valac

Just run the usual:

./configure
make
make install

The Webupd8 PPA has built this for Ubuntu Precise 12.04 and Oneiric 11.10. So as an alternaive, Ubuntu 12.04 and 11.10 can add the PPA and install it by executing following commands in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-updatemanager

Kazam Screencaster- Simple Screen Recording Program in Ubuntu

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:23:35 +0000

azam is a simple screen recording program that will capture the content of your screen and record a video file that can be played by any video player that supports VP8/WebM video format.

Optionally you can record sound from any sound input device that is supported and visible by PulseAudio.

Install Kazam Screencaster using PPA:

Kazam got stable ppa and unstable ppa on launchpad.net.

For now, we can get Kazam from the unstable ppa by running following commands in terminal(support Ubuntu 11.10 & 12.04):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kazam-team/unstable-series
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kazam

Kazam on Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/kazam

Install WinUSB to Create USB Windows Installer From Ubuntu Linux

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:27:33 +0000

WinUSB is a simple tool that enable you to create your own usb stick windows installer from an iso image or a real DVD.

This package contains two programs:
- WinUSB-gui: a graphical interface which is very easy to use.
- winusb: the command line tool.

Supported images: Windows Vista, Seven+ installer for any language and any version (home, pro…) and Windows PE.

Install WinUSB in Ubuntu:

Using the PPA is recomended since you will receive updates automaticaly from your update manager. In order to do that, you just need to lunch this command :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:colingille/freshlight && sudo apt-get update

Then, use this to install WinUSB:

sudo apt-get install winusb

GnomeBaker Simple CD/DVD Burner For Gnome Got A Stable PPA

admin — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 07:26:36 +0000

GnomeBaker is a simple CD/DVD burning application for the Gnome desktop.

For all those that hate brasero and badly burned cd/dvd media, GnomeBacker is an alternative.

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric has dropped GnomeBaker since it was available in Natty’s universe repository.

Now, A stable ppa has been built for gnomebaker (only Ubuntu 11.10 for now). To add this ppa, run the command in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomebaker/stable

Then, update the source:

sudo apt-get update

Finally, you can find gnomebaker in Ubuntu Software Center, or use:

sudo apt-get install gnomebaker

SourceCode avaiable here.

gdiskdump – clone or image Partitions,Disks and Files in Ubuntu

admin — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:05:14 +0000

Gdiskdump is an open source Graphical User Interface for the dd command. It makes easy to backup your Harddrive or Partition.
It’s a good choice if you hate command line, especially the complex parameters.

Installation

Download .deb package for gdiskdump from https://launchpad.net/gdiskdump/+download.

The version 0.5 .deb Package is working on 10.10 Maverick, 10.04 Lucid (x86 and amd64) and below.

The version 0.7.1 .deb Package is working on 11.04 Natty (x86 and amd64) and above.

Screenshot

Gdiskdump on launchpad.net: https://launchpad.net/gdiskdump

Take Screenshot of Android Phone on PC with Android Screen Monitor

admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 06:00:21 +0000

Have a new Android apps and want to share with your friends or just write a tutorial about how it works? Screenshots make things easy to understand, and here’s a free Android Screen Monitor(ASM) that connects to Android SDK adb and receives frame buffer continuously on the device or emulator and transfer image to your PC desktop window.

Normally, there’s a keyboard on right side of Android emulator’s screen and we need to remove it manually while taking screenshots, but ASM get rid of it automatically. The Android Screen Monitor only rotate and scaling monitor window and export a image into PNG file as screen shot tool, other actions are operating on Android device or emulator.

System Requirements

JRE(JDK) 5 or 6 and must set path to java bin directory
Android 1.5/1.6/2.0 SDK and must set path to android sdk tools and platform-tools directory

Install

1.) Install JRE(JDK) 5 or 6 and set path to java bin directory
2.) Install Android SDK and set path to android sdk tools and platform-tools directory
3.) Download Android Screen Monitor

How to Use

Ver.2.00 – 2.20
1. Before launch ASM, ensure connecting android device and your PC with USB cable
2. Launch ASM that file name is asm.jar by java command such as “java – jar asm.jar” on command prompt or terminal
3. Select android device which you want to monitor, when a Android Device window was shown
4. ASM will show android device screen to your desktop window
5. You can use several features by context menu (Right click on two button mouse environment or CTRL + Left click on one button mouse environment)

For more, read http://code.google.com/p/android-screen-monitor/

How to Restore Grub2 boot loader onto portable hard drive

admin — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:23:50 +0000

Do you have a removable hard disk with dual-boot systems and Grub2 boot loader? This is a simple tutorial about how to restore/reinstall grub2 on a removable hard disk using a Ubuntu machine.

Commonly, to restore Grub2 is just this three commands to reinstall it on that device.

sudo apt-get install grub-pc grub-common     # commonly installed already.
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/ /dev/sda    # install grub onto device /dev/sda.
sudo update-grub       # create grub.cfg config file.

Now, we’re going to restore grub2 on a portable hard drive using a Ubuntu machine. First plug in this device, assume that it is “/dev/sdb” (use sudo fdisk -l to check it) and mounted on “/mnt” (sudo mount /dev/sdbX /mnt). Just use previous three commands with the second one changed to:

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sdb

Now, everything’s done but “sudo update-grub” which will create “grub.cfg” config file on Ubuntu local drive rather than the portable hard drive, and the boot entries are the system entries on local drive.

Note: before following, make a backup first!

1.) To make “grub.cfg” created onto portable hard drive, edit “/usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig”

change:

sysconfdir=/etc

into:

sysconfdir=/mnt/etc

And run this to create a “grub.cfg” that will finally be moved into portable drive (under /mnt/boot/grub/)

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /PATH/grub.cfg

2.) For the boot entries, just edit the section in “grub.cfg”. Following may help. About add/remove grub2 entries, refers to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid # look up uuid of all device
ls -l /mnt/boot   # look for useful kernels

Ubuntu 10.10 setting up Mac OS Time Machine server

admin — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 07:24:18 +0000

Time Machine is a simple backup software in Apple’s Mac OS, “it automatically saves up-to-date copies of everything on Mac such as photos, music, videos, documents, applications, and settings.Time Machine works with an external hard drive or Apple Time Capsule using wireless” (quote from apple.com).

This tutorial is setting up a Time Machine server on Ubuntu 10.10, a redo on this post: sidikahawa.blogspot.com

Step 1: Install Netatalk, an open source implementation of Apple Talk. With Netatalk Linux and BSD can act as AppleShare file server, AppleTalk route, or print server.

use this command:

sudo apt-get install netatalk

Step 2: Configure where to save the Time Machine backups. Here create a target location (/backup/TimeMachine for example).

Edit /etc/netatak/AppleVolumes.default with:

sudo gedit /etc/netatak/AppleVolumes.default

type in following:

#~/ “Home Directory”
/backup/TimeMachine “TimeMachine” options:tm

Here backups will be stored in /backup/TimeMachine. And options:tm means Netatalk will act as AppleTalk

Step 3: Install and Configure Avahi

Avahi is an open source implementation of Apple’s Zeroconf, it makes Mac OS automatically discover the Ubuntu machine in network.

In Ubuntu 10.10, avahi-daemon is installed by default and we just need to configure /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service:

sudo gedit /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service

fill with:

%h

_afpovertcp._tcp

548

_device-info._tcp

0

model=Xserve

Step 4: Now, restart Netatalk and Avahi

sudo service netatalk restart
sudo service avahi-daemon restart

Step 5: Configure on Mac OS

Head to Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server -> Browse, and you should find the Ubuntu machine. Log into the Ubuntu, and try if you have write permission to the /backup/TimeMachine folder. If not, go back to Ubuntu machine and add write permission to the folder.

Run the command to enable Time Machine making backups to network drivers.

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Now, select TimeMachine folder on System Preferences -> Time Machine -> Select Backup Disk and finally click to start backup.