How to play Minecraft with a Sixaxis Controller on Ubuntu

Follow this tutorial and you will be able to play games like Minecraft with the Sixaxis Controller.

How to set up a Sixaxis Controller with QJoypad in Ubuntu

Dualshock 3 Controller with a mini-USB-cable

We are going to connect the Controller via USB, so you make sure your Sixaxis Controller is plugged in with a mini-USB-cable.

First of all we install the joystick Package via

sudo apt-get install joystick

In order to make sure Ubuntu is able to read the Controller input execute

cat /dev/input/js0

Now move the sticks or press some buttons on the Controller. The text output (which is the raw controller data) in your terminal should change.

Qt's logo

QJoyPad, our Linux Xpadder or joy2key equivalent, is based on the Qt framework so we will have to install it as well.

sudo apt-get install libqt4-core  libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools qt4-designer  qt4-doc

We will also need these packages

sudo apt-get install libxtst6 libxtst-dev

Now comes the more complicated part: Download QJoyPad. Open up a Terminal an execute the following commands in order to extract the source.

cd ~/Downloads
tar xzf qjoypad-4.1.0.tar.gz

compile the source:

cd cd qjoypad-4.1.0/src/
./config
make
sudo make install

QJoyPad will start minimized in the system tray, but Natty doesn't allow every application to show up in the system tray. We will change these settings; execute:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"

After logging out and in again or simply restarting unity you will be able to execute qjoypad. Now you can take input from the controller translate it into key strokes or mouse actions. The UI should be self explanatory ;)

Hard Disk backup / mirroring with Ubuntu and dd

In this post I will show you how to mirror  your hard disk with Ubuntu and the dd command. I used this method to backup the data from my laptop, which didn't start anymore. I was sure the hard disk was still alive and i wanted to save all my data.

You will need a s-ATA to USB cable like this one

At first you've got to make sure both hard disks are connected to the PC.
In my case /dev/sdc is the source and /dev/sdd is the target hard disk.


Use this command to mirror the whole hard disk, bit per bit.

pv /dev/sdc | dd bs=128k of=/dev/sdd

Where /dev/sdc is the source- and /dev/sdd is the target-hard-disk!

The dd command copies the hard disk bit per bit and the pv command adds a neat progress bar, because by default dd comes with no visual feedback.

For me it took like 3 hours to mirror all the data to my new USB-hard-disk.

Ubuntu in Big Bang Theory

Saw this episode just a few minutes ago :D

How to play Minecraft with a Wiimote

How to set up Bluetooth correctly

1. sudo apt-get install bluez-utils libopenobex1 wmgui wminput

2. sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart

3. sudo modprobe uinput

4. sudo su
   echo "uinput" >> /etc/modules

/etc/cwiid/wminput/minecraft

Edit the file /etc/cwiid/wminput/minecraft eg. with sudo gedit /etc/cwiid/wminput/minecraft and copy and paste the code below. You could also save this file as /etc/cwiid/wminput/minecraft
Now start wminput: sudo wminput -c minecraft -w

Pointing does not work but I'm figuring it out ;)
I think the key assignment is self-explanatory.

#Head Movement
Plugin.acc.X = REL_X
Plugin.acc.Y = REL_Y
#Body Movement
Plugin.nunchuk_stick2btn.Up = KEY_W
Plugin.nunchuk_stick2btn.Down = KEY_S
Plugin.nunchuk_stick2btn.Left = KEY_A
Plugin.nunchuk_stick2btn.Right = KEY_D
#Left Mouse Button, Right Mouse Button and Space
Wiimote.B = BTN_LEFT
Nunchuk.Z = BTN_RIGHT
Wiimote.A = KEY_SPACE
Wiimote.Home = KEY_E
Wiimote.2 = KEY_ESC

A fast and easy way to install the Minecraft server in Ubuntu Linux

All you've got to do in order to install the minecraft server is follow these instructions.
Or you can use a shell script i wrote:

1. download
2. make it executable ( chmod a+x minecraft_server_setup.sh )
3. execute it( ./minecraft_server_setup.sh )

show me the magic

#!/bin/bash
echo -n 'Do you want to (i)nstall or (s)tart the minecraft server?'
read watdo
startit(){ 
 if [ -d ~/.minecraft\ server/ ]; then
  cd ~/.minecraft\ server/
  echo -n "Do you have more than 1024MB of RAM?
  (y)es or (n)o"
  read watram
  echo -n "Do you want to start the server with a GUI?
   (y)es or (n)o"
  read watgui
  case "$watram" in 
   y|Y|Yes)
    case "$watgui" in
     y|Y|Yes)
      java -jar minecraft_server.jar
     ;;
     n|N|no|No)
      java -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui
     ;;
     *) echo "Unknown Parameter"
     read ''
     ;;
    esac 
   ;;
   n|N|no|No)
    case "$watgui" in
     y|Y|Yes)
      java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar
     ;;
     n|N|no|No)
      java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui
     ;;
     *) echo "Unknown Parameter" 
     read ''
     ;;
    esac 
   ;;
   *) echo "Unknown Parameter" 
   read ''
   ;;
  esac
 else
  echo "You don't seem to have the Minecraft server installed.
Do you want to install it now?
(y)es or (n)o"
  read watdo
  installit
 fi
 
}
installit(){
 case "$watdo" in
 y|Y|yes|Yes|i|I|install|Install) 
 if [ ! -d ~/.minecraft\ server/ ]; then
  mkdir ~/.minecraft\ server
  cd ~/.minecraft\ server/
  wget http://www.minecraft.net/download/minecraft_server.jar
  chmod a+x minecraft_server.jar
  echo -n "Do you want to start the server now?
   (y)es or (n)o"
  read startnow
  case "$startnow" in
  y|Y|Yes)
   startit
  ;;
  *)  
  ;;
  esac
 else
  echo "The Minecraft Server seems to be installed.
Do you want to start it now?
(y)es or (n)o"
  read watnowdo
  case "$watnowdo" in
  y|Y|yes|Yes)
   startit
  ;;
  *)
  ;;
  esac
 fi
 ;;
 s|S|start|Start)
  startit
 ;;
 n|N|no|No)
  exit 0
 ;;
 *) 
  echo "Unknown Parameter" 
  read ''
 ;;
esac
}
installit
exit 0

I know the code is pretty messy, but it's the first shell script i've written so I'm OK with it ;)

How to turn off the log in sound in Ubuntu

If you are like me, and often switch between different OS, you will get annoyed by login sounds easily. I tried to turn the Ubuntu login sound off, but the option to do so is somewhat hidden.

The Ubuntu login sound.

The settings in gdmsetup, didnt change anything

gdmsetup in german Unity

options for gdmsetup in german

In order to turn off the login sounds you have to start gnome-session-properties:

gnome-session-properties in Unity

Remove this check mark

In the gnome-session-properties search for "GNOME Login Sound" and remove the check mark
When you log in the next time, no login sound will be played :)


Here you can compare the Windows 7 login sound to the Ubuntu one
What do you think, which one sounds better?
And if you have a custom login sound for Windows or Ubuntu, leave a comment and let us know!

4 different wallpapers in Ubuntu 11.04 with Compiz

You want to have a different wallpaper on each workspace? Take a look at my screencast




The commands i used:

sagi compizconfig-settings-manager // installs the compiz settings manager

ccsm // starts the settings manager
gconf-editor // starts the gnome configuration tool

In the compizconfig-settings-manager search the wallpaper plugin, add the 4 wallpapers you want and then activate it.

Then start the gconf-editor and remove the check mark at apps>nautilus>preferences>show_desktop .

Your 4 workspace should now have different wallpapers.
If Unity displays the menubar or the dock incorrectly just log out and then log in again.

how to replace the sudo apt-get install command with sagi

Installing applications with terminal commads is pretty easy and often faster than opening up the software center and searching the application in there.

sudo apt-get install $PACKETNAME

The only hard part is typing sudo apt-get install again and again ;)
If you want to replace sudo apt-get install with a shorter command like "sagi" you have got to download  this script . Now open up a terminal and move the script to your home folder and make it invisible using this command.

mv ~/downloads/pastie-1907126.sh ~/.sagi

Open the file ~/.bashrc with this command:

gedit ~/.bashrc

Add this line to the end of the file:

source ~/.sagi

Restart the terminal and you are good to go! You can now use sagi instead of sudo apt-get install, with tab-completion for package names!

Source

Ubuntu Natty Narwhal install - now with Youtube and HTML5 !

When you install a new OS like Windows, you will spend a lot of time just looking at the slowly moving progress bar. But not in Ubuntu!

Watch Youtube while installing Ubuntu Natty Narwhal!

I'm installing Ubuntu 11.04 right now on my Acer ASPIRE 5742G. But even the Ubuntu installation takes some time, so I opened up Firefox and visited my Homepage.

And I was pretty surprised when I was perfectly able to watch the Family Guy Dubstep Video i uploaded a week ago. The Adobe Flash player was not even installed. Seems like Ubuntu 11.04 and the shipped Firefox 4 browser support HTML5 videos Out Of The Box.

Good job Canoncial and the Ubuntu Community! And thank you Youtube for enabling HTML5 embedded Videos!

Ubuntu Maverick vs. Natty vs. Mint vs. Elementary

Here you can compare the default interfaces of the different Ubuntu versions and the derivates Linux Mint and Elementary OS. Which design do you prefer?
I'll examine the differences between the different versions in an upcoming post.

Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

Linux Mint

Elementary OS

How to play Minecraft on Linux Ubuntu

Minecraft is one of those games, which run on Ubuntu natively. Of course you will have to have Java set up correctly. I'll show you how to do that in a short video!
Disregard the sloppy gameplay in the video, without screencasting, everything will run smooth.


You need to install Sun Java 6
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
The most important command i used is
sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun
because even if the the sun-java6-jdk/jre is installed correctly, another jre/jdk like openjdk may be the preferred version of java, preventing Minecraft from starting.
The command will set SUNs JRE as the default one and evade problems.

Crysis 2 Screenshots

Well, i have to admit, I did not take these Screenshots on Ubuntu. But gaming is the only reason why I still have Windows 7 installed on my Desktop PC. And because of the fact that i just bought the game I felt like sharing a few pics with you.
My PC's Specs are:

• Intel Core 2 Dou E8400 3.00GHz OC@3.73GHz
• nVidia 250GTS 1GBVRAM
• 4GB PC2-6400-DDR2-RAM
• on a MSI P43 Neo-F Motherboard

Not really the latest equipment, but i think the graphics are still awesome and I can play the game with a reasonable framerate on my 1920*1200 26'' Monitor.


I love the graffiti pieces in Crysis 2!

Gaming on Linux?

The first question I hear when talking about Ubuntu is:

Will I be able to play my games on Linux?

And the clear answer is yes and no. Yes because of the fact, that there are some games which run on Linux natively, but I have to admit that these are few.

You will be able to play Bejeweled on Linux!

(Maybe the "project bossanova" will change things)

Flash games work on Linux, as long as Flash works ;)

The interesting part about gaming on Linux is:
You will be able to play Windows games!

There is a tool called wine, which allows you to run (most) Windows applications on LInux. I'll show you how to configure it to be able to play certain games some time soon, because not being able to play your favourite game, is what keeps most Windows users sticking to Windows.

In order to demonstrate, how easy playing Windows games on Linux can be, I made a short video in which i run Warcraft III in Linux Ubuntu.


But keep in mind, that most modern games won't run on Linux just like that!

A fast and easy way to install Firefox 4 in Ubuntu

Just open up a terminal, copy and paste the whole code

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

and hit Enter! That's it, your firefox will now be upgraded to version 4.


Explanation of the commands:

sudo = super user do: tells Ubuntu to run the following command with root privileges.

add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable = add the mozillateams stable firefox PPA to your sources.list

&& = Tells the Ubuntu to execute another command if the foregoing command was executed successfully

apt-get update = tells Ubuntu to update your sources.list

apt-get upgrade = tells Ubuntu to upgrade all installed applications

How to set up a squid proxy in Ubuntu

This works, so here is the tutorial I promised in the comments.
In order to turn your Ubuntu PC into a proxy server, you have got to install squid at first:

sudo apt-get install squid

squid will not work out of the box, so we've got to do some changes to the config file at /etc/squid/squid.conf

sudo gedit /etc/squid/squid.conf

In order to change the name of your proxy insert the line visible_hostname *yourname* at the top.

My school blocks all ports but port 80 so I have to change squids port to 80.
You can do that by locating the line containing http_port 3128 (line 1114 in Ubuntu 10.10 with squid 2.7.STABLE9) and change it to http_port 80

To allow other computers to access your squid server, you will have to find the line containing http_access allow localhost and change it to http_access allow all (line 677)

Now tell squid to apply the changes with

sudo squid -k reconfigure

Congrats, your proxy is now set up!

port forwarding with my router

If you want to access your proxy from the internet, you will have to forward port 80 from your router to port 80 on your PC. You can find a guide for your router here.

If your IP-adress is dynamic you will have to set up dyndns (or a similair service) to guarantee your proxy server is always accessible.
I'll show you how to do that in an upcoming post!

How to add a custom Icon to your blog

Not exactly a tip for Ubuntu users only, but this one might be useful for you!

I think the standard blogger / blogspot favicon is quiet ugly.
Even if you don't think it's ugly, you have to agree to the fact that one icon can not fit hundreds of thousands of different blogs. All with different themes and designs etc.

In order to change your favicon you will have to upload it to some imagehost and link it in your html code, because blogger does not give you any webspace or the ability to easily integrate your own icon. The problem is: most imagehosts don't accept the *.ico format.
Even if you found an imagehost that accepts icons you would encounter another problem. The image can easily be deleted by the hoster due to high traffic or whatever.

So here's my bulletproof way to embed your own favicon into your blog:

1.  Create or download an icon you like. (You can use The Gimp to save any image as an icon)

1.Upload it to this base 64 encoder.

2.Copy the base64 encoded output.

3.Paste it into this little code snippet:

<link href='data:image/x-icon;base64,[YOUR BASE64 ENCODED STRING]' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/x-icon' />

4.Go to Blogger Dashboard > Design > Edit HTML Find this piece of code

</head>

5.paste the whole snippet right in front of it.

6.That's it, enjoy your new custom favicon!

Wiimote in Ubuntu [Video]

Because i seem to be getting more anglophone than german visitors, i decided to write my following tutorials in english and in german. But for now, enjoy this little video about how to connect your Wiimote to your Ubuntu PC using wmgui.
I'll show you how to do some cool stuff with your Wiimote in the upcoming posts.