Enhance the Look of Audacious

What is Audacious?
There was Winamp, a very popular media player to play MP3 and other media formats in Windows. Then there was a clone in Linux named XMMS. Now, Audacious, that is also a clone of Winamp.
As a clone, we can use various skins, plugins, presets from Winamp.

Audacious in Ubuntu comes with very few skins.
To enhance the look, you can download the Winamp skins from:
http://www.winamp.com/skins

Copy the downloaded skins (*.wsz) to ~/.local/share/audacious/Skins/
Then run the Audacious.
Right-click on the Audacious, select Preferences (CTRL-P).
Click Appearance. Click Refresh Skin list button. On the Skin list box, select the skin you like.

Example of skins (my favorites):

Expensive_HI-FI-1.2



WilD GlazE



Neoclassic_V_1_2



n3ON



Alien_Assault_v1

Enhance the Look of Ubuntu 8.04 using Emerald Themes Manager

After googling a lot, I find solutions how to enhance the look of my Ubuntu, by using Emerald Themes Manager. By default, Ubuntu comes with only one theme. You can download some themes by click on this link: http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/e/emerald-themes/emerald-themes_0.2.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb

I install the package by running command:
# dpkg -i /emerald-themes_0.2.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb

Go to Applications menu, Add/Remove.



On the Add/Remove Applications window, on the Show drop-down list, select 'All Available Applications'. On the Search box, type: Compiz. Then select Compiz Fusion Icon.



Click Enable, then click Apply.



Go to Applications menu, System Tools. Select Compiz Fusion Icon.



Compiz Fusion Icon will appear on the Notification Area (system tray). Right-click on the Compiz Fusion Icon, click Select Window Decorator, click Emerald.



This is some themes from the emerald-themes package.



From this picture, I show you the effect on the Windows Title Bar.

VMware Server 2.0 Installation on Ubuntu

After waiting for some months, I saw the e-mail from VMware that VMware Server 2.0 has been released on about Friday, September 26, 2008. I don't want to use the beta version while I can find many other solutions like VirtualBox, MS Virtual Server / Hyper-V, and others.

Before install the VMware Server 2, you need to ask the product key first. Better prepare now than enter the product key later. You can download and request the product key here:
http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

VMware Server 2 for Linux: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
(I replaced the actual product key with X)

The install process is really easy if you already have known what is needed or what is the pre-requisites for this software to be installed.

This is the steps how I install the VMware Server 2.0 on my Ubuntu Desktop 64-bit.

I used Synaptic Package Manager to install apache; because this is the easiest way to setup the web server. I select apache2 and apache2-doc. All related dependencies will be automatically installed.

then I run this command to install xinetd:
# apt-get install xinetd

I verify that the apache has been already set to start automatically
# sysv-rc-conf --list | grep 'apache'
apache2 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

Because I run Ubuntu Desktop 64-bit, I already download the VMware-server-2.0.0-116503.x86_64.tar.gz, and I want to extract it on directory /src.
# tar -xzvf /media/My-Data/Software/VMware/vmware\ server/VMware-server-2.0.0-116503.x86_64.tar.gz -C /src

# cd /src/vmware-server-distrib/

# ./vmware-install.pl

If it installed successfully, it will output like this:

---

Starting VMware services:
Virtual machine monitor done
Virtual machine communication interface done
VM communication interface socket family: done
Virtual ethernet done
Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0 done
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background) done
DHCP server on /dev/vmnet1 done
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background) done
DHCP server on /dev/vmnet8 done
NAT service on /dev/vmnet8 done
VMware Server Authentication Daemon (background) done
Shared Memory Available done
Starting VMware management services:
VMware Server Host Agent (background) done
VMware Virtual Infrastructure Web Access
Starting VMware autostart virtual machines:
Virtual machines done

The configuration of VMware Server 2.0.0 build-116503 for Linux for this
running kernel completed successfully.

---

When I first started the VMware Server 2.0, I was surprised with the new look. Although I know that the version 2 will be different, but not think that it will be so different than the previous versions.

First, you have to manage using either Firefox 2 or Firefox 3. In the case of Firefox 3, may you will prompted like this:



Click 'or you can add an exception...', click 'Add Exception..." button. In the 'Add Exception' window, click 'Get Certificate' button. I suggest you select 'Permanently store this exception' because you run from your own personal computer, then click 'Confirm Security Exception'.



Make sure that you do not disable script for this site (https://127.0.0.1:8333), then you will get the login window:




This is the first look of the VMware Server 2:

It's so much different than before, isn't it?
I suggest you to read the VMware Server 2 documentation for the rest steps, because it will take times to cover the details. At least I have included the VMware Server 2 installation steps and give you some snapshots from the first virtual machine I created by this software.

The first virtual machine (guest OS) I created running Windows Server 2008 64-bit.



I need the VMware Remote Console. I do not want to see virtual machines running directly from small browser window, so I install the VMware Remote Console plugin.





Here are the snapshots of my first virtual machines created on VMware Server 2.0:

Ubuntu 3D DesktopHow to Enable

First, I should have a supported graphics adapter. If not, I can still have some effects, but not as good as shown in my previous post.
In this case, I have an NVIDIA.
I install the driver by selecting menu System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers



Then click the check box to enable NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver.



Click the Enable button. It will download the necessary drivers from the Internet and ask to restart after installation completed.







Use the Synaptic Package Manager, I can install the necessary packages easily.



Just use search, type "compiz".
I did right-click on 'compizconfig-settings-manager', select 'Mark for Installation'. I did the same for emerald package. Then click Apply to start downloading and installing the packages.





After package installation completed, go to System, Preferences, Advanced Desktop Effects Settings.



Here are the many desktop effects you may set. I don't think that I will ever try all of these effects:









I also use Emerald Theme Manager to set another effects.





As you see in the previous post, I have tried some interesting desktop effects. Check out this link:
http://danielr-ubuntu.blogspot.com/2008/08/ubuntu-3d-with-compiz.html

e-Sword running on Wine / Ubuntu

e-Sword (http://www.e-sword.net) is a free electronic bible. Although not all of the bibles are free, but we can get a lot of free bibles such as the King James Version (KJV), Modern King James Version (MKJV), Indonesian Terjemahan Baru, etc.

I tried to find a bible software for Linux. Then I found this software.
Actually I have used the Pocket PC version of this bible software.

Here are the other snapshots:

Use Indonesia Terjemahan Baru (ITB) Bible


Use Modern King James Version Bible