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DiGiTSS Team's Programming experience with PHP, MySQL, Ajax, Javascript, jQuery, C# and Microsoft technologies

How to setup Xubuntu on Ubuntu-Server

Jun 23

Posted by Dharmavirsinh Jhala in Ubuntu | 2 Comments

Xubuntu / Xfce on Ubuntu Server

Xubuntu / Xfce on Ubuntu Server

I recently started using Ubuntu and I really liked the way things work in Ubuntu. I really like that when you setup Ubuntu Server distribution it does not come with GUI at all and that way it saves us from spending few mega-bytes of memory and we won't be wasting around 200MB behind graphical display and related processes, which we won't be using on the Server OS which usually does it's job without requiring us to install any GUI application on the Server.

But well many a time we may want to setup light weight x-window system on our Linux (Ubuntu) system and we can do that with setting up Xface or it's Ubuntu name as "Xubuntu".

To setup lightweight Xface or Xubuntu system on your Ubuntu Server setup you just need to follow some simple commands and that's it, you are done.

So if you are ready to setup, just follow some simple apt-get commands and install minimal packages required to setup lightweight GUI system on your Ubuntu Server:
# To get and install xfce4

$ sudo apt-get install xfce4

# Set of required packages for minimal setup
$ sudo aptitude install catfish elementary-icon-theme exo-utils flex gigolo gnome-icon-theme-full gnome-system-tools gnome-time-admin gthumb gthumb-data gtk2-engines-pixbuf indicator-application-gtk2 indicator-messages-gtk2 leafpad libclutter-1.0-0 libclutter-1.0-common libclutter-gtk-1.0-0 libcogl-common libcogl5 libconfig-inifiles-perl libencode-locale-perl libexo-1-0 libexo-common libfile-listing-perl libfont-afm-perl libgarcon-1-0 libgarcon-common libgdome2-0 libgdome2-cpp-smart0c2a libgegl-0.0-0 libglade2-0 libgnomevfs2-extra libgsf-1-114 libgsf-1-common libgstreamer-perl libgtk2-notify-perl libgtk2-trayicon-perl libhtml-form-perl libhtml-format-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libhttp-cookies-perl libhttp-daemon-perl libhttp-date-perl libhttp-message-perl libhttp-negotiate-perl libid3tag0 libido-0.1-0 libilmbase6 libio-socket-ssl-perl libjpeg-progs libkeybinder0 liblink-grammar4 libloudmouth1-0 liblwp-mediatypes-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl libmad0 libmailtools-perl libnet-dbus-perl libnet-http-perl libnet-ssleay-perl liboobs-1-5 libopenexr6 libotr2 libots0 libsexy2 libthunarx-2-0 libtie-ixhash-perl libtimedate-perl libtumbler-1-0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libwww-robotrules-perl libxfce4ui-1-0 libxfce4util-bin libxfce4util-common libxfce4util4 libxfcegui4-4 libxfconf-0-2 libxml-parser-perl libxml-twig-perl libxml-xpath-perl libxss1 link-grammar-dictionaries-en m4 orage  python-configobj python-glade2 ristretto synaptic system-tools-backends tango-icon-theme tango-icon-theme-common thunar thunar-archive-plugin thunar-data thunar-media-tags-plugin thunar-volman ttf-droid ttf-lyx tumbler tumbler-common xfce-keyboard-shortcuts xfce4-appfinder xfce4-cpugraph-plugin xfce4-fsguard-plugin xfce4-indicator-plugin xfce4-mount-plugin xfce4-netload-plugin xfce4-notes xfce4-notes-plugin xfce4-notifyd xfce4-panel xfce4-places-plugin xfce4-power-manager xfce4-power-manager-data xfce4-quicklauncher-plugin xfce4-session xfce4-settings xfce4-systemload-plugin xfce4-taskmanager xfce4-terminal xfce4-utils xfce4-verve-plugin xfce4-volumed xfconf xfdesktop4 xfdesktop4-data xfwm4 xfwm4-themes xubuntu-artwork xubuntu-default-settings xubuntu-icon-theme xubuntu-wallpapers gnome-system-monitor

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Ubuntu / Debian File System organization

May 27

Posted by Dharmavirsinh Jhala in Ubuntu | No Comments

If you ever wonder and would like to know about basic file-system architecture / organization of debain or ubuntu based system than here you go:

  • ./: is root directory.
    - under root there will be home directory which will be having directory for each user under it.
    - under root "/" there will be following directories:
    etc, dev, home, usr, var
  • /boot: This folder contains important files required to boot machine including bootloader files.
  • /dev: Each device on your system has an entry in this folder. Each application accesses the device by using the relevant items inside /dev.
  • /etc: This directory stores files for system-wide configuration. Apart from configuration files for all programs or system itself, this directory will also contain files for each user under the system.
  • /lib: Important system software libraries are stored inside.
  • /media: Media devices such as CD or USB sticks are referenced here when they are plugged in.
  • /mnt: other mountable devices.
  • /opt: Optional software can be installed here. This folder is optionally used when you want to build your own software.
  • /proc/sys: Information about the current running status of the system is stored here.
  • /root: Home directory for the main superuser.
  • /bin: Software that is vital for the system to be able to boot is stored here.
  • /sbin: Software that should be run by superuser is stored here.
  • /usr: General software is installed here.
  • /var: contains log files about the software on your computer.

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Ubuntu: How to change Hostname?

May 26

Posted by Dharmavirsinh Jhala in Ubuntu | No Comments

There may be time when you will come across situation when you will need to change the HOSTNAME of your machine. It may be because you might have just cloned your virtual node for load-balancing or may be for any other reason but here is how you can change the HostName of your Ubuntu or Linux machine/node:

On first place how to find out Hostname of the Linux/Ubuntu Machine?

 
# just type in: (All caps are necessary)
$ echo $HOSTNAME
# output might be any name here let's say it is "myubuntu"

Now to change the Hostname of your Ubuntu (or most Linux) machine follow following steps:

 
# open hostname file for editing (either in VIM or your choice of editor be it edit, gedit or nano)
$ sudo vim /etc/hostname
# hostname file will get opened in vim (or vim or your choice of editor)
# update new name and save the file and exit, that's it you're done.
# Sometimes you may also want to edit name of file in hosts file to do that just type in another line at shell
$ sudo vim /etc/hosts
# you will see 2 entries in the file
     127.0.0.1      localhost
     127.0.0.1      myubuntu
# Here change 2nd line which says myubuntu and update it to name of your desire and save and exit
 

That's it you don't need to do anything other than this to change HOSTNAME of your Ubuntu (or linux) system.

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Quick-Start Guide to ADOdb Database Abstraction Library for PHP

Apr 28

Posted by Dharmavirsinh Jhala in Database, PHP, Tools / Plugins / Extenstion | 1 Comment

PHP (and yes it's for Python too..!) Adodb library has been one of the popular database abstract library since sometime now. We have been using it since sometime for simple operations when we are not using standard framework and probably just serving the plain web-services.

Here is a quick start guide to get started with Adodb5 library when using with PHP to get started with most basic functions for database interactions. For more details one can always browser around and read through detail documentation available at http://phplens.com/lens/adodb/docs-adodb.htm. This is just a quick start guide for all those who just want it little faster to get along with.

How to create adodb connection?

include_once(WEB_ROOT . 'base/adodb5/adodb.inc.php');
 
global $DB;
$DB	= NewADOConnection('mysqli');	
 
$DB->debug = false;
try
{
	$DB->Connect('localhost','root','password','my_db');
	$DB->fetchMode = ADODB_FETCH_ASSOC;
}
catch (Exception $e)
{
	print_r($e);
}

How to Query using Adodb?

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Bootstrap from Twitter goes 2.02

Apr 2

Posted by Dharmavirsinh Jhala in News | No Comments

I have been following Twitter Bootstrap project closely since it was announced open-sourced last year and this year it has reached it's version 2.x which is good progress. I have recommended this to my team for couple of projects and had my hands on it for a while.

Today it has grown up to a very mature level where we can use it as a complete web-application UI which is feature-rich with many jQuery plugins and beautiful eye-candy CSS buttons, menu-bar etc.

I think I forgot to mention that it's completely CSS3 and HTML5 framework and you can use it to build mobile web-interfaces too. The forms elements styling offered out of the box are too good (killer...!)

The components which Twitter bootstrap packs in the framework are:

  • Buttons (Yes, they are beautiful out-of-the-box :-) ready to be used)
  • Navigation (packs 3 types of tabs and pills), Navbar, breadcrumb and pagination
  • Labels, Badges and beautiful typography
  • Thumbnails
  • Alerts
  • and Progress-bar

Now you might think that most of the CSS Frameworks will be packing such components, may be even may be more than what bootstrap has to offer but now here comes the real deal it comes with one dozen jQuery plugins integrated - which are just ready to be backed with your next web-application here are to name some of them:

  • Modal (very well integrated with CSS)
  • Dropdown (again beautiful integration)
  • Scrollspy
  • Tooltip (decent)
  • Popover
  • Alerts (removable ones)
  • Button groups, stateful and toggle
  • Collapse (Vertical tabs)
  • Carousel
  • and Typehead (Google Suggest)

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Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) Beta2 is released

Mar 30

Posted by Dharmavirsinh Jhala in Ubuntu | 1 Comment

ubuntu - fast, effective computing for everyone

ubuntu - 12.04

I have been using beta1 release of Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) since last few weeks and I have been trying to setup Ubuntu Server pool for one of my critical application which requires HA (High-Availability) and Load Balancing.

But today I am not going to talk about what I have been building on top of ubuntu but ubuntu precise has come up with new and final development release (beta2) today before production ready release, which will be available on 26th April (probably last week of April 2012).

I am new to Linux but Ubuntu has made my experience so rich (even without any GUI) that I am feeling bad about using Windows so far. Everything seemed so easy with handy commands and world was all here. I fell in love with Ubuntu and I will keep using it for the good.

Now Ubuntu 12.04 Precise has many good features which I am not going to jot down here but you can view that on official posts.

How to upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 / Precise Beta2 from 11.10 or 11.04 ?

To upgrade from 11.10 you just need to use "sudo apt-get do-release-upgrade -d" and it should take you on ride with precise. Here switch "-d" indicates that you want to upgrade to development release.

How to upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 / Precise Beta2 from 12.04 Beta1 ?

To upgrade from 12.04 beta1 to beta2 you need to use "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade". I didn't knew that but I came to know once I asked at ubuntu-forums. Read the rest of this entry »

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Blogs@DiGiTSS is back again..!

Mar 30

Posted by Dharmavirsinh Jhala in News | No Comments

New Life

New Life

Hello and Nameste to All Readers,

I would like to apologize as we at DiGiTSS could not keep blogs section vibrant since last 6 months. We have been late in replying comments and there was no new post since more than 6 months now.

We are sorry about that (our silence or inactivity) and with that we are promising that we will make blogs@DiGiTSS more vibrant place and a place where you would love to visit for interests, learning and everything related to programming world. As a major contributor to this blog I would like to share that past few months have been great learning experience for us and we have learned a lot. We experimented, tested and succeeded at many of our technical experiments and we promise to share them with you in upcoming posts.

We understand that it is one's responsibility to keep blog vibrant and should keep it going in favor of blog as well as it's readers, so that readers or visitors have some reason to come back. If one fails to do that the blog will be lost just like any other blog.

Feedback: Please provide your valuable feedback as comments here for us to know that what did you liked most here and what you think we should have been writing about. We really value your feedback and we will make sure that it will be worth sharing your thoughts about your experience with us and we welcome your suggested changes or improvements.

Write for us..! We are looking for Guest Authors:

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