I think it is not a problem for many people to find out every time you start your Ubuntu and find out the boot up splash screen is 640 x 480, instead of your preset resolution. But for perfectionist, it is very suffering.

Ok, here is a 3 steps method to solve this.

type “sudo gedit /etc/usplash.conf” in your terminal. After accessing with your root permission. You will see something like

# Usplash configuration file
# These parameters will only apply after running update-initramfs.
xres=640
yres=480

Just change the xres and yres to what your favourite resolution. Maybe 1024 x 768, then xres=1024, yres=768. After that, save it.

The last step, you need to type “sudo update-initramfs –u” to update your initramfs.

Reboot your PC and see whether you have a nice boot up GUI.

I thought Pidgin can be heading towards more user friendly wise to gain on the IM market shares. But years already, I still didn’t see very aggressive GUI improvement from Pidgin.

One of the problems, I’m still facing is I want to minimize the buddy list during start up. In Pidgin default setting or the command line, you could not any of this. But here is a way how to get it done in just 3 simple steps.

Step 1. Install pidgin-extprefs from Synaptic

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Minimize Pidgin during Startup

Saw this trick on downloadsquad.com, so share this tips here on how to reset your forgotten password.

1. In GRUB message, press the escape key.
2. Select the one with the recovery mode
3. Boot up in shell until you reach the command prompt. Type in "passwd username" where username is your account username. (typing "ls /home" to bring it up)
4. Enter your new password. Confirm your password again.
5. Type "shutdown -r now" to reboot your system.

In Linux and Unix, users only allow to access files/folders with their permission only. However, under a superuser named root, users are able to have the privileges to all the administration work.

su root

su stands for Switch User. To access other users, just use their username instead of "root".

What Ubuntu different from other Linux distro is it includes sudo command. It will assign users for temporary root-level privileges. So, to execute your command in terminal under root-level privileges is simple, just add "sudo" before your command. Please note that the password require is user password and not the root password.

userA@machineA:~$ sudo vi /etc/testing.conf

"sudo -s" is equivalent to "su"

You do not have to worry when running GUI programs that require for root privileges as it will prompt for a password automatically.

For those used to Windows system, you might find Linux folder system is totally a confusion for you. Folders name such as /bin, /etc, /media really didn’t clear indicate the purpose. And most of the time you don’t know how to get back to the original path.

Here is a picture clearly illustrate how Linux folder system really works. Hope this really give you a clear picture. Basically, I normally mess around in /mnt, /etc, /dev and /home.

One of the purpose of my Linux desktop is to play media files! Yes, I subscribe plenty video feeds on Miro. It will automatically download new video files and play directly on it.

Good day does not last long, out of sudden my Miro starts to crash every time it plays to the last video on the playlist. Then I ran my Miro using the terminal console and found out that the error shown was "Segmentation fault".

This is not an isolated case, I have seen a lot enquiries about such problem. None of the any reply from Miro team or fixes for this problem. Here is a solution for your problem.

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Solution for Miro’s Segmentation fault

Nowadays, the hard disks sold on the market are usually more than 100GBs. Even though you have larger hard disk, but have you wonder why the maximum you could only have 4 primary partitions?

The reason is because in the first 512 bytes is reserved for the Master Boot Record (MBR). It stores the information of the partitions, but 512 bytes is only allows 4 primary partitions. So, if you have more partitions to create, then you need to create extended partition. And within the extended partition, you can have any number of logical partitions.

You have dual boot working on Windows XP and Linux running with GRUB, but for certain reason, you want to get rid of GRUB. So how to uninstall?

Here is the simple method, just boot up with your Windows XP cd, then goes to the recovery console, type in:

$ fixmbr

For Windows 9x and DOS:

$ fdisk /mbr

You can actually mount ISO mirror image just with one click only! How? First you need to have a small tool called Gmount-iso to be installed on your desktop. It was written in PyGTK and Glade.

Just install with the command

sudo aptitude install gmountiso

You can use the command to do the job

mount -o loop -t iso9660 testing.iso /mountpoint

Or through the GUI at Applications -> System Tools -> Gmount-iso

If you are the only user that is using the desktop and you do not have any sensitive information, you sometimes might find it is troublesome to go through the login windows and key in password after every boot up.

Here is how you enable auto login feature in Ubuntu.
On Taskbar choose System > Administration > Login Window

Then in Login Windows Preferences highlight the Security tab. Just check Enable Automatic Login with your preference user selected and you have get rid with your Login Window already.