Download Ubuntu Packaging Guide (PDF, Epub, HTML In A Single .deb)

Daniel Holbach maintains a daily builds PPA for a project called "Ubuntu Packaging Guide" which aims to provide a set of articles for working with debian packages and Launchpad, uploading your GPG key to Launchpad (required to create a PPA), fixing bugs, getting the code via BZR, working with a PPA and so on. The guide is in its early stages (currently version 0.1.0) so it's not complete but it's already quite useful.

The guide is not meant to replace the Debian documentation but to provide Ubuntu-specific instructions:

The Ubuntu Packaging Guide is a set of articles that should help you to get involved with packaging and development of Ubuntu. It's not meant to replace other great documentation like the Debian New Maintainer's Guide or the Debian policy, but serve as a starting point with easy and simple to understand articles.

The package provides PDF, Epub and single / multiple HTML files but to get these you'll need to either add the PPA or download the .deb.

The PPA currently provides Ubuntu Packaging Guide packages for Ubuntu 11.04 only but it might get packages for older Ubuntu versions too (there was some bug which prevented the packages from building on older Ubuntu versions and then the packages were deleted). Add the PPA and install Ubuntu Packaging Guide in Ubuntu 11.04 using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-packaging-guide-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-packaging-guide

If you're not using Ubuntu 11.04, you can download the Ubuntu Packaging Guide .deb from HERE. But remember: the guide is constantly updated so to get the latest changes you should add the PPA!

Once installed, open Nautilus and navigate to /usr/share/doc/ubuntu-packaging-guide and you should find a file called "ubuntu-packaging-guide.pdf.gz" - you can open this with Evince. You'll also find a folder called "epub" in which you'll find an epub format for the Ubuntu Packaging guide (look for ubuntu-packaging-guide.epub.gz), as well as two folders which provide the Ubuntu Packaging Guide in HTML format.

Also see: An Introduction To Debian Pagaging PDF guide

Minty Freshness: New LMDE Theme Based On Orta, Created By SkiesOfAzel

It appears that SkiesOfAzel, the Orta theme developer was contacted by a LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) developer to create a similar theme for LMDE and the initial result can already be tested (not just on LMDE - you can use it on any Linux distribution obviously). If you thought Orta is amazing, wait until you see the new Minty Freshness (that's the name of the new Orta modified for LMDE):

The result, even though shares a lot of similarities with Orta, it "uses a lot less pixmaps and lets murrine do its thing" says SkiesOfAzel.

The theme is still work in progress so there is no configuration tool like for the original Orta (so you can't modify how the tabs look, change the panel color and so on) but it looks great already!

Install Minty Freshness

Just because the theme was created for Linux Mint Debian Edition, it doesn't mean it won't work in other Linux Distributions. Simply follow the installation steps below.


To install Minty Freshness, you'll need to get it via GIT as it's not available in any repository yet.

1. Install GIT:

sudo apt-get install git-core

2. Download Minty Freshness via GIT:

cd
git clone http://github.com/SkiesOfAzel/mint-x-theme.git

3. Install the theme - you can install it either system-wide (available for all users - including applications you open as root, or for your own user only):

- system-wide:

cd
sudo cp -r mint-x-theme/usr/share/themes/Minty-Freshness /usr/share/themes/

- your user only:

cd
cp -r mint-x-theme/usr/share/themes/Minty-Freshness ~/.themes/

Update: Minty Freshness is now available in the WebUpd8 themes PPA.

Thanks to LinuxMint Life for the news; Second screenshot credits: SkiesOfAzel

Download "An Introduction to Debian Packaging" PDF Guide

An Introduction to Debian Packaging is a PDF created by Lucas Nussbaum, designed to tell you what you really need to know about Debian packaging, keeping a resonable size. The guide doesn't attempt to be complete but it's great if you want to start making your own .deb files or simply understand how the Debian packaging works.

Note: If you're using Chrome to open the PDF, the text is not readable because of the background. Download the PDF and open it in a PDF viewer instead and the font will look ok (or use Google Docs).

Download "An Introduction to Debian Packaging" PDF | Open the PDF with Google Docs.

For the full Debian packaging documentation, refer to The Debian New Maintainers' Guide or the Debian Policy Manual. There's also a small how-to on this available on WebUpd8: How To Create A .DEB Package [Ubuntu / Debian] (it's pretty basic but should be enough to get you started).

Live CD To Fix / Restore Grub (And Grub2) Or Force Filesystem Check: Rescatux

There are many ways Grub can get broken: installing Windows, messing around with Grub configuration files or just a faulty update. Luckily, there are also quite a few ways to restore Grub. Such a tool is Rescatux, an really easy to use Live CD that fixes the Grub in seconds.

Rescatux is a tool to recover Grub / Grub 2 that comes with a GUI so it's less "scary" for those of you who do not like the command line and can restore Grub to the MBR or update the Grub configuration with just a few clicks. Further more, the latest Rescatux version (released a few days ago) comes with an option to force a filesystem check which can help recover Grub or Grub2 when Grub cannot read the filesystem because of inconsistencies. It can Restore Grub to the MBR for most Linux distributions, however the update Grub option only works with Debian-based Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Linux Mint and so on).

To use Rescatux, simply burn it onto a CD or create a bootable USB stick, then boot the Live CD/USB and the Grub recovery window will automatically pop-up:

Then chose "grub-install" to restore the Grub and finally run "update-grub", then restart your computer:

If for some reason Rescatux doesn't work, you can try to do this manually: How To Recover GRUB2 [Linux]

Rescatux is supposed to work with both Grub (legacy) and Grub2, however please note that I've only tested it with Grub2 (it worked just fine for me - I broke the Grub for a virtual machine and then used Rescatux to fix it).

Download Rescatux (a single ISO for both 32bit and 64bit - 595 mb)


See also: Grub Customizer (can also fix Grub2)

[via Tux Planet.fr]

Debian Is No Longer Just A Linux Distribution

Debian stable version 6.0 code named "Squeeze" has been released. After 24 months of arduous testing, the Debian team has finally released v 6.0 which brings many firsts among its features. They are -
Read more »

Linux Mint Debian 201012, available

The developers of Linux Mint announced some time out of a specific edition of Linux Mint based on Debian but something that combines the advantages of both distributions and gave a perfect performance for many users.

Linux Mint 10 'Julia' appeared a month and a half, And now she does Debian-based editing (and in particular, Debian Testing), called Linux Mint Debian 201012 (Year and month out), a

Six Linux distributions that made a difference

Nowadays you can find Linux in the strangest places: Robots, refrigerators, cellular, media players, Several servers ... and even computers. Of course, the system has not yet mastered the penguin in the area of desktop (and it is likely that this will not happen anytime soon) but he is gaining more and more users every year, and being recognized as a great alternative to Windows and Mac OS . It

Linux Mint Debian 64bit To Be Released In December

Linux Mint Debian offers the "ready to use" Linux Mint experience in a rolling release Linux distribution. Until now, LMDE was only available in 32bit, but an announcement on the Linux Mint blog states that Linux Mint Debian 64bit will be released in December.

Besides a 64bit version, there are other "goodies" that are going to be available in the new Linux Mint Debian release (if you're using the 32bit version, there's obviously no need for a clean install - since it's a rolling release, all you have to do is upgrade your packages): improvements to the installer, fonts and sound as well as performance tweaks such as the now very well known 4 lines alternative to the "200 lines Linux Kernel patch that does wonders".

[via Linux Mint blog]

2ClickUpdate 6.0 Adds Ubuntu 10.10 Support

2ClickUpdate is a front-end for system updates that checks for and installs updates, removes unnecessary files and cleans up after installing the updates. It works on any Debian/Ubuntu based Linux distribution.

2ClickUpdate is a shell script with a GUI provided by Zenity that uses axel (similar to apt-fast) for handling the downloads (so the downloads are a lot faster then regular updates) and NotifyOSD notifications.

2ClickUpdate automatically performs the following actions:

• Refreshes your package list.
• Installs the latest updates for your applications and system libraries.
• Removes packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for some packages that are no more needed.
• Removes packages and configuration files which are not required by any other software upon your system.
• Removes all stored archives in your cache for packages that are no longer in the repositories or that have a newer version in the repositories.
• Deletes from cache the downloaded packages to free up some space.

All with just 2 clicks (thus the name).

2ClickUpdate is available in 20 languages and the latest version (6.0) finally works with Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. Other new features in 2ClickUpdate 6.0 include:

• RamCleanApt, which optimizes RAM memory freeing up some MB's.
• Redesigned User interface in 2Click Update
• 2cuCORE (a command line version of 2ClickUpdate) edition is also available in .deb packages for easy installs/uninstalls
• SmartApt module for installing/upgrading is now based on Update Manager

Here is a video demoing the latest 2ClickUpdate recorded by its developer, Salih EMIN:

Download 2ClickUpdate 6.0 (GUI ) - available as a .deb | Once installed, launch it via the Applications > System Tools > 2ClickUpdate menu item.

Thanks to Salih EMIN for the news and video!

Decorate your desktop with Desktop Art Rhythmbox

Looking for plugins to Rhythmbox, I find this very nice: Desktop Art is a plug-in that shows album cover, the name of song and album name and interpret that we are listening to Rhythmbox, on desktop. In addition, if we pass mouse over it, the buttons appear to advance or rewind song list, and button play/pause, giving us ability to control the audio player from desktop.


This

Gnash 0.8.8 has been included in Debian Squeeze

Gnash, the alternative within free software Adobe Flash player, reached version 0.8.8 on 23 August.

Towards a couple of weeks that Debian Squeeze, had entered freezing, but has applied derogation has been included to be in new version of Debian.

The new version of Gnash, which is already in 0.8.8-2, offers many good features.They can be 100% of videos you have a problem

Linux Mint Debian Edition

If you two days ago here on blog announcing release of Linux Mint 9 Fluxbox, yesterday, in Linux Mint Blog brought us a surprise.

This is release of Linux Mint Debian Edition, a new division, now based on Debian.

According to announcement of Linux Mint team, promises to be faster and more sensitive and be less dependent on primary components.

Perhaps a little harder to use than other issues,

Debian 7.0 will be called Wheezy

When version 6.0 of Debian is still in a frozen state, has released code name for next version.

Debian 7.0 will be called Wheezy

Since beginning of Debian, all names have been for that movie characters, Buzz, Rex, Bo, Hamm, Slink, Potato, Woody, Sarge, Etch, Lenny and Squeeze's to come.

As for release of version 7.0 does not have data, because Debian 6.0 Squeeze, which had to be entered in a

Debian complete 17 years

By way Internet Explorer is not only famous birthday today and bit field data. The Debian-based operating system Linux, is also celebrating. Is 17 years since it was announced by Ian Murdock in 1993. The project has had 14 releases, 11 conferences focusing on it and only has 873 developers and over 40 000 packages. And now his most famous distribution is Ubuntu, which is gaining more popularity

Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" frozen

As had been suggested two months ago and finally was announced during conference in New York DebConf10 administrators of Debian project releases decided to freeze development cycle of next version 6.0 "Squeeze" from his hugely popular GNU/Linux.

This means that from now on no new features will be added and that all work will focus on correcting errors and refine current state of "Squeeze" to

Eeebuntu reborn as Aurora

Eeebuntu, custom distribution to award-winning family of netbooks from ASUS EeePC last year broke with its roots of Ubuntu, reborn with a new name, a new distribution base and a new orientation.
Building on work being done for never released Eeebuntu 4.0 , Aurora is now based on Debian and GNOME desktop very clean, and supports equally well for desktops and laptops in addition to original EeePC

Debian 6.0 " Squeeze " freeze in August?

Barrat dam, launch team of Debian project announced so that all developers are hoping to finish integrating changes caused by the distribution upgrade to Python 2.6. Once that happens it is planned to eventually freeze development of Debian 6.0 "Squeeze." Barrat estimated that freeze will happen at end of next August.

By then you should also completed migration of GLIBC to EGLIBC and

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 Lenny Released

A new release of Debian GNU/Linux namely version 5.0 aka Lenny has happened. The previous release version 4.0 code named Debian Etch was made 22 months ago that is 2 months short of 2 years. Debian is infamous for its long release dates. For example, a transition from Woody to Sarge took a whooping 35 months to happen. Though Sarge to Etch happened in a mere 22 months. But compared to some of Microsoft Windows releases, this time duration can be considered to be fair play. Having said that, Debian is widely respected for rolling out a robust and secure GNU/Linux distribution that supports a broad machine architecture. And the latest official stable release "Lenny" is no different.

Debian Lenny doesn't come bundled with the latest versions of software. For instance, you will not find OpenOffice.org ver 3.0 in it's repositories. And KDE is still at ver 3.5.10, and GNOME at 2.22. But you can rest assured that what you have is a rock solid Linux distribution which will never roll over and die on you.

For the very first time, Debian has rolled out a Live system which you can try without installing it on your computer's hard disk. It is made available as a Live CD, on USB Sticks, or via netboot.

Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (Lenny) can be downloaded at Debian.org.

TuxRadar has published an indepth review of Debian Lenny dwelling on its pros and cons. The site also carries an interview with Steve McIntyre, the Debian Project Leader providing us more insight behind the new Debian release.

Google portable device runs Debian Linux

The portable device I am talking about is the T-Mobile G1 Android cellphone. Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an Operating System, Middleware and key applications. Presumably, the T-Mobile G1 contains an ARM EABI architecture which is supported by Debian.

So a group of people (hackers) set out to install Debian on their T-Mobile G1 Android phone. The end result, at the least, is quite interesting. They have succeeded in running a full fledged Debian OS on their G1 Android cellphone at the same time, retain all the features which allow it to function as a cellphone such as receiving and making calls.

Read a detailed writeup on the steps needed to install Debian on a TMobile G1 Phone at the following website. AndroidFanatic.com has released a Debian installer script for your Android cellphone which you can download here.

Also watch the following video which shows Debian running on the Android G1 cellphone.

Debian successor to Lenny - a three-eyed space alien

Debian team is infamous for sticking to hard to remember names for each of its releases. Thankfully, they have stuck to one theme while naming the distribution releases - that of the "Toy Story" movie. Each release is named after a character in the Toy Story movie.

So you have Sid, Lenny, Etch, Sarge, Woody, Potato and so on. The following is the explanation given by the Debian team regarding these names. So now with the impending official release of Lenny as a stable version, it is now the turn of the next build of Debian in Sid to be promoted to Testing and it has been named Squeeze (after the three-eyed monster in Toy Story).

Read the official Debian announcement to know more.