حلم مصرية

From here I knew that there’s is a Chrome version for Ubuntu, but it’s still in beta phase. Anyway, who cares? Beta is good .

Each time I install Ubuntu, I start searching for how to add arabic support for my system. I find the answer, I add Arabic, and then – – I forget about all of it. This time I’ve decided to post it here so it become a reference for both me and others – those who are new to ubuntu.

Just go to System->administration->language support

Then hit “Install/remove languages”

Find Arabic in the new window and check it. Also check components you want.

Now you have Arabic but you have to add it to your panel and set shortcuts.

Right Click on the top panel, choose add to panel, and chose keyboard indicator.

You’ll find the language used added to the panel. Right click it and choose Keyboard Preferences->Layout->

First you need to add new layout

Then go to Layout Options.

There are a lot of configurations there. The most important – at least for me – is “Keys to change layout. This is the shortcut to toggle between languages.

That’s it.

Note: this howto is for Ubuntu 9.04. I don’t know if it’s different for other versions. Even if it is, it’s sure a little difference.

Well, I have rm videos and want to watch them.
Actually, ubuntu’s default totem player works fine with rm files in 9.04 version.
But some files don’t work, I don’t know why. So i’ve installed realplayer for linux. It works but without sound!!
I’ve searched a little and here’s the answer:

There is sometimes an issue with Pulse audio sound. Set Realplay to use OSS in tools->preferences->hardware->audio driver
Then type
sudo gedit /opt/real/RealPlayer/realplay
then on line 52 change

$HELIX_LIBS/realplay.bin “$@”

to
padsp -n RealPlayer -m RealPlayerStream $HELIX_LIBS/realplay.bin “$@”
now rm disk player will play with video and sound

Well, it worked and I’m watching my videos now, happily.

Some sites are developed to work only on IE. I think this is because either poor development skills (I mean the site developer only tests his site on IE) or because of some deal with Microsoft – conspiracy theory

Anyway, on Ubuntu, without IE, this is really annoying.

I found the sol. lately. But before you go for it, send to website master and tell him that this is silly.

The sol. is using this nice software: IEs 4 Linux

And here is a nice explanation if needed IEs4Linux – Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5, 6 & 7 on Ubuntu Linux

To make a dual boot of Windows and Ubuntu, I’ve made a partition to be shared between them for holding data. I’ve partitioned it as NTFS.

The problem is, It’s not mounted automatically when ubutnu starts up, don’t ask me what’s mounting, I don’t know yet.

Anyway, to mount it I just open it.

The side effect for this is, if I use something from this partition, say a photo as background, you don’t see this background until you mount the partition. I learned this through using, I’m brilliant

A similar problem was that the Kawigi plug-in for topcoder Arena was stored on this partition. So, when I try opening any question on the Arena, I find a silly message saying that “Could not instantiate the editor KawigiEdit (see the java console for details).” The message and the Java console (which in turn refuses to open easily) don’t say anything useful about how to solve it. Every time I get this error I go here and there, search on google and topcoder forums, find the same results every time, remove the plug-in and add it again, and then it works normally. Sometimes it works without removing and adding. And I got angry of it as I didn’t know how it worked.

Then, yesterday I discovered it. The plug-in is stored on my store partition, the one that needs mounting every start up. So, If it happens to open my arena without opening my store, the plug-in fails to be instantiated. And, the issue is, every time I get this problem, remove the plug-in and add it again, I always search for the plug-in as I always forget where it is, so I open the store partition, and that’s why it’s solved suddenly sometimes.

I don’t know about mounting and I don’t know how to make it mount automatically. Just wanted to share this bug.

I heard them saying “Linux is faster than Windows”, “Linux is more secure”, “Linux is open source”, “Linux is free”. Well, if it has all these advantages, why do we use Windows? They said “Linux is difficult to learn”, “Linux users are rare and you’ll find yourself alone with no community around” and so on. But I thought “If a computer engineer can’t be brave enough to try another operating system, and does not even know enough about it, who would know? It’s a shame.” So I made the decision to switch, espicially when they said that linux does not crash as often as Windows.

Well, about 2 years ago, I’ve started to search about linux, knew that there is no single linux OS like Windows. I knew that there are so many distributions from different vendors. I knew that ubuntu is the most common, it’s easy to use as it’s the most similar to windows, while it’s still secure. So, I went to Ubuntu Site, downloaded my first ubuntu CD (6.04) and within a week, I’ve repartitioned my harddisk and installed it. That’s it. I’ve installed it, found a book about ubuntu, and continued using Windows as usual. Nothing changed. Only when windows crashes I go to my dear ubuntu and say “please help me” .

Then comes the disaster. My PC stopped working. Even ubuntu could not convince it to work again; yes ubuntu managed to make my PC work before while windows could not. Here comes Mos3ad, my laptop. Mos3ad was born -:)- about 8 months ago. It came with windows vista installed and partitioned as a whole large partition that holds vista. I wanted to install ubuntu again. But, to do this, I had to make recovery disks for windows, repartion, install windows again from recovery disks, then finally install ubuntu. And to do all of these, I had to backup all my data (about 60 GB at this time). “I’ll do it later as soon as I have time”, that’s what I kept telling myself.

Then, when windows started to do it’s bad games, I found the time to do all previous steps, and installed ubuntu 7.10. And again, continued using windows, till I find the time to read about linux.

Then, windwos started to play it’s bad games again, and vista startup time became a nightmae for me, that I’ve stopped shutting down at all, I always stand by. But I found that ubuntu start up time is much less than windwos time to come back from stand by mode. Also, one day I’ve found that touchpad stopped working on windows, despite working on ubuntu. And, the big day of descision came, when windows stopped connecting to my LAN. And after calling customer service of my ISP, finding that the problem is not in service, trying with ubuntu and finding that it’s connecting normally, I’ve switched to ubuntu and never gone back to windows. Only when I need a progem that needs windows. And by time, I know about alternative programs on ubuntu. (now I have 8.10. I’ve kept upgrading despite not using it )

Finally, I want to talk about what kept me away from ubuntu all this time. I’ve always waited until I find the time to read and learn about ubuntu moer before using it. I’ve never found this time. I’me learning by using. When I face a problem, I search, I find answers, and it’s solved. I may not understand a lot now, But I’m sure I’ll understand by time. And sure I’ll find the time to read someday .