Instalasi VLC 1.0.0 di Ubuntu

VLC merupakan salah satu video player yang cukup populer di kalangan pengguna Linux. Kemampuannya juga cukup tangguh, player ini mampu memainkan berbagai format video dan audio seperti MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, mp3, ogg, dll. Selain itu player ini juga mampu memainkan DVD, VCD, dan bahkan berbagai protokol streaming yang dijalankan di jaringan. Hebatnya lagi VLC juga bisa dimanfaatkan sebagai server untuk keperluan streaming secara unicast maupun multicast di jaringan IPv4 maupun IPv6.

Instalasi VLC 1.0.0

Saat ini VLC sudah mencapai versi 1.0.0 yang datang dengan berbagai fitur-fitur baru yang semakin canggih. Namun tulisan ini tidak akan membahas tentang fitur baru VLC 1.0.0, untuk lebih jelas mengenai fitur-fitur baru ini bisa dilihat di sini. Untuk melakukan instalasi VLC 1.0.0 di Ubuntu, perlu ditambahkan repositori dari ppa karena rilis ini belum masuk di dalam repositori default Ubuntu. Edit berkas /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

lalu tambahkan alamat repositori berikut

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/vlc/ubuntu intrepid main

Ganti intrepid dengan jaunty jika menggunakan Ubuntu 9.04, setelah itu simpan perubahan ini dan keluar dari editor vim (gunakan editor selain vim sesuai dengan kebisaan Anda).

Sekarang tambahkan kunci GPG untuk repositori ini dengan perintah

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 7613768D

Lalu jalankan perintah

sudo apt-get update

untuk memperbarui index sourceslist di Ubuntu yang akan di-install VLC.

Instalasi VLC bisa dilakukan menggunakan perkakas GUI seperti Synaptic atau menggunakan baris perintah dengan menjalankan perintah

sudo apt-get install vlc

Instalasi ini bisa berlangsung cepat atau lama, tergantung koneksi internet yang digunakan. Satu hal yang pasti, VLC akan bertengger di menu Applications -> Sound & Video -> VLC. Selamat menonton.

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Instalasi Nagios 3 di Ubuntu 8.10

Nagios itu apa sih?
Nagios merupakan sebuah perangkat lunak yang sangat berguna dalam administrasi jaringan terutama jika jaringan yang dikelola memiliki ukuran yang cukup besar. Dalam sebuah perusahaan yang memiliki jaringan dengan ukuran menengah atau besar biasanya terdapat beberapa layanan yang disediakan oleh beberapa server. Pada umumnya semakin besar ukuran sebuah perusahaan semakin banyak pula layanan yang disediakan, sebagai konsekuensinya semakin banyak pula server yang harus disediakan. Bagi pelanggan dan karyawan/staf perusahaan/instansi, banyaknya layanan ini tentu saja semakin memudahkan dalam menyelesaikan suatu pekerjaan. Namun tidak demikian untuk para administrator jaringan karena dengan bertambahnya ukuran dan layanan dalam sebuah jaringan tentu saja menambah pekerjaan mereka.
Salah satu perkerjaan yang harus dilakukan para admin adalah memastikan bahwa semua layanan di jaringan berjalan dengan baik. Pekerjaan ini jika dilakukan secara manual tentu saja sebuah pekerjaan yang sangat melelahkan. Apalagi jika server-server yang harus diawasi tidak berada di satu titik terpusat. Untuk mengatasi hal inilah Nagios hadir. Nagios memungkinkan seorang admin memastikan semua layanan berjalan baik hanya dengan menggunakan sebuah browser. Ya, Nagios merupakan sebuah daemon yang bisa diakses lewat browser.

Instalasi Nagios
Bagi para penggguna Ubuntu 8.10, cara termudah untuk melakukan instalasi Nagios adalah dengan menggunakan Synaptic Pakcage Manager karena Nagios versi 3 sudah masuk ke dalam repositori Ubuntu 8.10. Cara lain yang lebih praktis adalah menggunakan terminal (Applications->Accesories->Terminal). Setelah terminal dibuka, ketikkan perintah berikut:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nagios3

Berikutnya periksa konfigurasi nagios3 yang ada di /etc/nagios3/, masih dari terminal

cd /etc/nagios3
sudo nagios3 -v nagios.cfg

Jika tidak ada pesan galat/kesalahan (error) pada saat menjalankan perintah di atas maka nagios3 sudah siap digunakan. Tapi untuk mengakses antarmuka milik nagios, pengguna harus terdaftar pada konfigurasi httpasswd.user milik nagios, jangan lupa untuk me-restart nagios. Untuk itu ketikkan perintah berikut dari terminal,

sudo htpasswd -c htpasswd.users nagios
sudo /etc/init.d/nagios3 restart

Ketikkan password pada prompt yang muncul setelah perintah di atas. Password ini nantinya akan digunakan untuk mengakses antarmuka nagios menggunakan username nagios. Jika semua berjalan lancar, secara default nagios akan menampilkan dua host yaitu host tempat nagios berada dan gateway yang digunakan oleh host tersebut (jika ada).



Episode Berikutnya?
Langkah berikutnya adalah menambahkan server-server yang akan diawasi menggunakan nagios. Caranya cukup mudah, tapi tidak akan dibahas dalam artikel ini. Jika ada waktu saya akan bahas di lain kesempatan.

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Installing Oracle Express Edition 10g R2 on Ubuntu / BlankOn

This article is just an English version of another article of mine here. This article will explain briefly how to install Oracle XE 10g R2 on Debian GNU/Linux based distro such as Ubuntu, BlankOn, etc. The easiest way to install Oracle in Ubuntu/BlankOn is using apt-get or Synaptic. But first we have to add a new entry for Oracle repository in /etc/apt/sources.list because Oracle is not included in Ubuntu official repos. Here's the way to do this step by step:

1. Edit repo's configuration in /etc/apt/sources.list using your favorite editor, in this article I use vim so from a terminal run this command:

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

and add this line to the end of that file

deb http://oss.oracle.com/debian unstable main non-free

2. Run apt-get to update your repo's index, still from terminal run

sudo apt-get update

3. Install Oracle XE using apt-get

sudo apt-get install oracle-xe oracle-xe-client

4. Now, we have to configure our new Oracle server by issuing this command from a terminal

sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

At this step we have to answer a few question, just hit enter to use default value.

5. Installation is now finished, we can access Oracle web based interfaced by pointing our browser to http://localhost:8080/apex. Enter 'system' (without quote) as username and your password.

6. If you enter your username and password correctly, you will log in to the administrator page like this

Okay, that's it. Now you have your own Oracle server ready to explore.

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What Feature will be Included in Ubuntu 8.10?

Ubuntu 8.10 code name Intrepid Ibex will be the next release of Ubuntu distibution. It is still in beta version, but many people is waiting for its release for its new features. If you have tried Ubuntu 8.10 alpha or the first beta version, you'll see many improvements and features including in this release. These features will be included in the next Ubuntu 8.10 named Intrepid Ibex final release:

1. Gnome 2.24
This is the latest stable version of Gnome desktop environment. This release brings many improvements i.e tons of bug-fixes and new features. You'll like the new tab support feature of Nautilus file manager, thanks to Christian Neumair for his work on this feature. Next feature that will be the most favorite from this file manager is it's ability to eject removable drives in Places Bar just by clicking an icon lied on the drive.


2. X.Org 7.4
Intrepid will bring us the latest stable version of X.org. This release brings much better support for hot-pluggable input devices such as tablets, keyboards, and mice.


3. Linux kernel 2.6.27
Intrepid comes with Linux kernel 2.6.26 which will provide us with better hardware support and numerous bug-fixes.


4. Enrypted private Directory
Now you can encrypt your Home directory easily with the encrpytfs-utils. But remember that this is a new feature, it was recently promoted to Ubuntu main.


5. Guest session
This new feature will enable a guest session in Intrepid release. You can see this feature in the User Switcher panel applet. This feature works by creating a temporary paswordless user with restricted privileges.


6. Network manager 0.7
The Network Manager now ables to manage 3G connections, multiple devices active at once, PPP and PPPOE connections, devices with static IP configurations, and routing for devices.


7. "Last successful boot" recovery entry
This is a great feature. On each successful boot, Ubuntu 8.10 will retain a copy of your running kernel and make it available from the boot loader as a "Last successful boot" option.


8. DKMS
DKMS is a framework which allows kernel modules to be dynamically built for each kernel on your system in a simplified and organized fashion.


9. Samba 3.2
Samba 3.2 comes with support for cluster file server, encrypted file network, ipv6, and better integration with MS Windows client and server.


10. PAM authentication framework
11. Totem BBC plugin

But you have to be patient, Ubuntu 8.10 will be release on 30th October. Can't wait? Download and try the beta.

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Improve OpenOffice.org Performance

OpenOffice.org is an office suite software for GNU/Linux. Many GNU/Linux distributions include this software by default. We may say that this is the most popular office suite in GNU/Linux distributions. But, many people say that this software is slow, not responsive, and its loading time takes too many times. Maybe it's all right, this is because OpenOffice.org is configured to work in low resource system. If you have a gig of RAM or more, high end processor, the best VGA card, you can tweak this software to improve its performance. This article will show you how to do this tweak. Keep reading.

Let's start by opening OpenOffice.org Writer, this is the word processor of this suite. From the main window, follow the step below.

1. Go to the Tools menu then select Options to open OpenOffice.org Options dialog.
   
2. Now the dialog is opened, we see it is divided in two panel. On the left panel we see options which we can configure, on the rigth panel is the value of an options selected on the left panel.
3. Highlight Memory on the left panel to open its value on the right panel. You need to tweak the default setting to get the best performance. First reduce the Number of steps under Undo to 20 or 30 (less than 100), second increase the amount of memory Use For OpenOffice.org to 128MB, next set Memory per object to 20MB, the last one set The number of objects under Cache for inserted objects to 20, do not forget to check Enable systray Quicstarter under OpenOffice.org Quickstarter.
   
4. Highlight Java on the left panel, uncheck Use a Java runtime environment.
   
5. Click OK button on the Options dialog.
6. Close OpenOffice.org then start it again and feel the new performance.
   

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Two New Compiz Fusion Plugin: Screensaver and Aquarium

There are two new Compiz Fusion Plugin that will be included soon for the future release. These are really cool plugin, it will make your desktop even more beautiful. Here they are:

1. Screensaver

This plugin has two mode. The first one Rotating Cube, this will rotate your desktop in cube form when your computer is idle. And the second Flying Windows, this take your windows and flips and whirl them around.


2. Atlantis Cube Plugin or Aquarium

This plugin puts some fish inside your cube, swimming around. This appears when the cube plugin is enabled and you rotate your cube.

Here is a video about this two new plugin, I hope you enjoy it.

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How to Add Repo Server List in Mandariva

This is a simple guide about how to add a server or mirror to your repository list in Mandriva. I did this using Mandriva 2008.1 but you can implement this guide to the previous version of Mandriva. I will provide this guide in two part, part one using graphical user interface called Rpmdrake and part two using a tool from command line interface that is urpmi. These tools have a same function, you may choose either the first way or the second way.
rpmdrake
Rpmdrake is Mandriva Linux package management tool. You can use this software to add or remove server from your repo list. This software also functions as a tool to install or remove software in your Mandriva. Before you can install software by using rpmdrake you have to add at least one repo server first(generally called media).

To add a media, run rpmdrake from System->Administration->Install & Remove menu. This will open a window titled Software Management.

At this window press Alt+O or click Options menu and select Media Manager.

Here we see that I already have 3 enabled repo that I configured before. Simply click Add button to select a mirror from the list officially provided by Mandriva.

Choose Update sources only at this point, you may also try to choose Full set of sources if you want a full set of sources.

Answer Yes, make sure that your Internet connection is running because this software will contact Mandriva website to get a mirror list. This will take some time, be patient to wait.

Now you have to choose a mirror, try to select the nearest mirror to your location. Continue by pressing OK button. Then downloading process of the index file for your new repo will start, this may take some time. Please wait. When this proses complete, click OK button to finish.

Now you can try to install a new software, simply type teh name of the software you desired in the search bar labeled Find.

urpmi

If you know a mirror nearby your area, but you don't see it in the list from Mandriva. You can try this way to add it manually. Open a terminal from Applications->Tools->Terminal menu, and run this command

urpmi.addmedia main http://kambing.ui.edu/mandriva/official/2008.0/i586/media/main/release with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia non-free http://kambing.ui.edu/mandriva/official/2008.0/i586/media/non-free/release with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz
urpmi.addmedia contrib http://kambing.ui.edu/mandriva/official/2008.0/i586/media/contrib/release with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

Note that to run this command you need to be a root, by invoking su command in terminal.

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