How to install Dropbox on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

I’m not sure why but Dropbox’s .deb file made for Jaunty is not working, so I had to find an alternative solution. This is a rough guide how to get Dropbox to work on your Karmic Koala

Step 1: Go to Dropbox web and download the source. Here is a direct link to it

Step 2: Unpack the source code

Step 3: You will need the following packages (or equivalent):

libnautilus-extension-dev
libnotify-dev
python-docutils

So fire up Synaptic Package Manager and install them.

or  install them via terminal using this command:

sudo apt-get install libnautilus-extension-dev libnotify-dev python-docutils

Step 4:

Go the nautilus-dropbox dir (the one that got created when you unpacked the source code). Configure, compile and install the Dropbox. In the nautilus-dropbox dir just do:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

After installing the Dropbox you must restart Nautilus. You can do that by issuing the following command (note: if you’re running compiz, doing so may lock up your computer – log out and log back in instead):

$ killall nautilus

When all that is done go to Applications -> Internet and you see Dropbox there. Select it and it will finish installing Dropbox. When that’s done set it up by providing your credentials or registering and getting a new account.

PS! This guide was written using Alpha 2.

Edit: Thanks sanbor for your comment, I corrected it.

-Eric

How to upgrade ALSA in Ubuntu 9.04 to 1.0.20

I was having issues with Skype the other day . Somehow my mic was not working. I read several howto’s and played with several options, but nothing seemed to work. But  I found another way to fix it. It meant that I needed to upgrade my ALSA from the current version (1.0.18rc3) to 1.0.20. I used this blog to do it.

-Eric

How to add Vista/Windows 7 partition to Grub 2 (Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala)

Today I decided to give Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) a try. I’m using my old laptop for testing purposes. At the moment I have there Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 installed and I can use them both with dual booting. I had no vital documents on my Ubuntu partition so I decided to do a clean install. Karmic Alpha 2 was just released and compared to Alpha 1 it was now using GRUB 2. Install went smoothly with no particular issues so I booted to Karmic and messed around a bit. Then logged off again rebooted, ready to use Windows. Imagine my surprise when there was no boot to Windows option in GRUB.
Here’s what I did to add it. I booted up to Karmic again. Now I only had 1 hard drive, but several partitions. I needed to find out which one was my windows partition. To do that I started a terminal and used the following command:

# sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

According to this my Windows partition is hda1. To continue with my plan to add Windows boot option I typed in the following line:

# sudo nano /etc/grub.d/11_Windows

This created a new a new file. I then added the following lines:

#! /bin/sh -e
echo “Adding Windows” >&2
cat << EOF
menuentry “Windows 7″ {
set root=(hd0,1)
chainloader +1
}
EOF

Now save the 11_Windows file.

Bare in mind that in earlier version of GRUB, if your Windows was installed on first partition then you need to give root=(hd0,0). Thats how GRUB used to number partitions. Starting from GRUB 2, you need to give root=(hd0,1), if your Windows is installed on first partition. So under GRUB 2 it looks like this:

First partition (/dev/sda1): root=(hd0,1)

Next type the following command:

# sudo chmod a+x /etc/grub.d/11_Windows

Next type in the following command:

# sudo update-grub

You should be able to see something like this:

# sudo update-grub
Generating grub.cfg …
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30-9-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.30-9-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30-8-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.30-8-generic
Adding Windows
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done

Now close all the open programs and type in the following command to your terminal:

# sudo reboot

If all went well you should see Windows 7 option in your GRUB2.

-Eric

How to get SpeedLink SL-8850 to work in Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty)

First see that your USB sound card is plugged in.

Then you need to edit your audio settings. Open your terminal and write this:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Now add the following line to the end:

blacklist snd_intel8x0

Save the file and close it.

Open your alsa-base file:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

and add the following under #autoloader aliases:

install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd_usb_audio
#install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd_intel8x0

And find the following lines and comment them

#options snd-usb-audio index=-2
#options snd-usb-usx2y index=-2

Save the file and close it.

Now reboot your computer and after that your USB sound card should work by default.

-Eric