Posts with tag: ubuntu


VirtualBox Tricks

| tags: ubuntu

I need to run an old version of Ubuntu Linux on my new server to support some otherwise obsolete software. It should have been easy but my ignorance made it take a few days of intermittent head banging. Here are few notes for my future self.

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Add DNS Search to Natty

| tags: ubuntu

I don't want to have to type gb.cs.unc.edu when I'm at home. gb should be sufficient. Adding search domains is harder than it should be. I finally got it to work by editing /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf and adding the line: prepend domain-search "cs.unc.edu";

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Disable balloon tips in Thunderbird

| tags: ubuntu

I've started using Lightning for my calendar and I really like it except for the stupid balloon tips that pop up and get stuck every time my mouse passes over the Thunderbird window, even when it is below another window. I turned them off with Edit->Preferences->Advanced Tab->Config Editor... and setting browser.chrome.toolbar_tips to false. Much better now.

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Creating PowerPoint Slide Shows from Wordpress Posts

| tags: programming, ubuntu

For the Tar Heel Reader project I needed to convert very simple multi-page WordPress posts into PowerPoint slide shows. I chose the circuitous route of making an OpenOffice Impress show by bashing XML and then converting it to PowerPoint. I manually created a prototype slide show with a title page and a single book page in Impress and saved it in their native .odp format. These files are simply zip archives containing several XML documents and the images. Why they didn't include the sounds, I don't understand. The important file is content.xml . Examining it in Firefox revealed the bits I'd have to change on the title page and for each page of the book. I found several useful hints in a Linux Journal article by Collin Park . I used the PHP DOM module to read in the prototype, update it for the current book (retrieved with the WordPress get_post function), and write it out along with the images. Zipping this result up produces a new Impress presentation for the book.

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Cooling off the nVidia graphics in my D800

| tags: ubuntu

I recently upgraded my D800 to Ubuntu Hardy. Things seem to be working fine. Looking through the packages available I saw that I could get sensors-applet to monitor internal temperature sensors. This showed that my GPU was running near 75 degrees C.The nvidia-settings tool showed I was running at Performance Level 2 and appeared to be stuck there. I searched a bit and found other people looking for the same info and got a few hints. After some fooling around I found the following commands would cool things off. They may reduce performance but I don't need it.

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