/etc/sudoers

Hi All,

Ever guessed what is a su-doer??? Ok he is the root of *x Operating Systems. Actually he is not a full root(He does not have all the permissions of a root(Administrator in Windows), but has some - depending upon the permissions given by root himself.)

And for many of you - who guessed how come there is no root in Ubuntu...By no root, I mean to say that a normal user - if he gives his password - he acts as the root of the OS (in Ubuntu only)....., then this post is for you folks.

Ok as usual let me teach you geeks as to how to do things - the Lenny way...

1. Find out if you have this file - 'sudoers' in this path - '/etc/' [ls /etc/sudoers]
2. If you dont have it - then you need to install a package through your Synaptic called 'sudo'.
3. Perform Step 1 again after this.
4. Open your terminal or konsole and type this command - 'visudo' as root
5. You will get a new window - which is a GNU Nano editor
6. Add this below line in the "User privilege specification" section
"your_name(it is the a/c name)" ALL = rmdir \/usr/games [Without quotes]
7. For example if your normal user name is geekyCheek, then it becomes "geekyCheek ALL = \/usr/games" [Without quotes]
8. The above steps 6 and 7 - if they are typed in your editor and saved using Ctrl + X, then you can run the command rmdir and also you have control as a root to the games installation directory.

Finally if you never want to do anything under the root - but you want the permissions to do all kinds of work, then add this line.

[I dont guarantee any one for any loss of data or mishaps that may occur due to this command]
"geekyCheek ALL=(ALL) ALL" [Without quotes]

Type 'sudoers example' in Google search to get more results and information.

But be careful,
Ananth Gouri

Wifi on Lenny

Hi All,

This post tells you how to configure your wifi connection on Debian Lenny. [This post is more related to configuring it to a "iwl3945" Intel wifi card]

1. Issue this command - "lspci | grep Network"
You will find some output like this if you have a wifi option in your desktop or laptop ---
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
2. The above output shows that you have an Intel Pro 3945 wifi card.
3. Note that every user may find something different. You may have to refer to your own card specific details for configuring it. But this setup works for most cards.
4. You need to add the contrib and non-free from the previous stable Debian,i.e Etch,to your sources.list file.
5. Install the following packages from your Synaptic - "iwl3945" (for your kernel specific), "firmware-iwlfi" and finally a Wifi Manager called "WiCd". Note that this will uninstall your "Gnome Network Manager", a.k.a, nm-applet. But dont worry - since WiCd is much better in some aspects. [Has no Gnome Dependencies since it does not use GTK, runs on any Desktop and et al.]
6. Issue the following command as root - "iwlist scan", check if your card is detected and scanned for packet requests[N/W ping]. It should show as "Scan Complete" and with some packets details.
7. Note that if you are away from a WiFi hotspot, then you may get something as "No Scan Results"
8. Finally the ending steps after install are, to run WiCd from your Applications - Network and check if any Wifi networks are enabled/detected.
9. Check sure if you have your device that is stated in step 6 - the same as the one that you would get in "WiCd". [Usually the device is wlan0, ath0 or eth1. Your wired n/w would be eth0.]
10. If you have any Encryptions, then you may have to authenticate properly. [Will discuss the same as a post sometime from now on.]

Thats it, click on the Connect button and if you have got everything working fine, you are lucky to run your first WiFi-ied page.

All the best.

I am always open for questions and doubts - with regard to this post. You can mail me anytime for help.

[I will be also posting on OpenSSL-ed configurations using Xsupplicant. Keep waiting and happy reading.]

Take care,
Ananth Gouri

Sympathy on Empathy

Hi All,

As many of you know, actually you may not know that there is no Google Talk for Linux. The story gets worse - since Google Talk does not work fine on even the latest WINE (Windows Emulator).

Alright people can argue that they can chat by logging to Gmail on their browsers.

But what if you want to do voice chat??????

Ok here comes "Empathy Messenger".

How to install:

1. Make sure that you have the latest repositories.
2. Use synaptic package manager and search for Empathy.
3. Install it.

Thats it, now you can do voice chat out of the box...

Finally the pity on Empathy, is that, it does not work in proxied networks. That is if you have a proxy server configured, though you may give the Gnome Proxy settings or the KDE Proxy settings, but Empathy does not work.

Try it, learn it and reveal it to your friends....

Enjoy....

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Skype on Debian

Hi All,

This post helps you to install Skype - Linux version on Debian Lenny.

1.Hit your browser directly to download the skype deb package Download Deb Skype

2.After download, use the dpkg -i "filename".deb command from your terminal.

Thats it..

You need to have a skype a/c to call your folks. Note that many tollfree numbers can be called using Skype and also if you have your friend on Skype, you can talk for hours.

Enjoy.......

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Racing with Vdrift

Hi All,

Probably nobody can counter-argue for the statement - "EA Sports' Racing Games are the best". Though Need for Speed games are playable in Linux under wine, cedega or playonlinux, there are some smaller versions of racing games dedicated and open sourced and mainly free in Linux.

To name - there are - TORCS, SuperTuxKart,ManiaDrive, and many more.

Vdrift in another game that is good in graphics, uses openGL and adds to list of GPL free games.

Configuring Vdrift in Debian Lenny(This works for any Debian based Linux):

1. Hit your browser to - http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=137283&package_id=150901
2. Download the *ubuntu deb files from vdrift-2006-02-21
3. Your system will ask you for a library package - libopenal0.
4. Download libopenal0 from http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/i386/libopenal0/download
5. First install using dpkg -i "libopenal0" and then vdrift file which is around 42Mb.
6. Finally race down the lanes using the command /usr/games/vdrift

Happy racing.........

Bye,
Ananth Gouri

Free as in ...Tennis

Hi All,

I know what you folks were thinking when you saw the title. Of course, I can understand your problem. But I wanted to discuss not about "FreeBeer" but about "FreeTennis"!!!

Ok after seeing Fedex win the French Open, even I started playing tennis. Dont worry, I wont be a competitor to Fedex, but of course to Nadal....

Configuring FreeTennis in Lenny:

1. Install freetennis from your package manager - synaptic.
2. The executable file will be in /usr/games/
3. cd to the above path...
4. Execute this command:

./freetennis -surf grass -computerskill 250 -newbie

Here the options to freetennis are, surf - surface with grass clay cement

computerskill with the best level 0 and the weakest 250. Default is 190

Select newbie.

5. Press F to grab a full screen.
6. There are many other options too. Type 'man freetennis'

The whole game is played using your mouse. So hope you have a good mouse to play.

"Play Options"

Left click - fast serve / first serve
Right click - slow serve / second serve

Move your mouse to place the ball to suit your shot.

Pressing left click - is like a smash.
Pressing right click - is like lobbying the ball.

Thats it.....

Enjoy your game.......

Take care,
Ananth Gouri

Linux and the Wife

Hi All,

Ok..ok..dont be perplexed by looking at the title of the post. Though it may not sound so good as "Alladin and the Genie" or as "The Tom and Jerry", there is definitely something that I want to discuss.

My all time favorites, Debian Lenny.... Ok the name - Debian evolves from 2 people. One - "Ian Murdock", the founder of Debian GNU/Linux and his wife "Debra". So the Java String concatenation is "Deb"ra + "Ian"Murdock = Debian

Ok there is another favorite of mine- the Knoppix. Ok this guy - Klaus Knopper though had many projects under his wife's name, recently when he released Knoppix 6.0, he gave the release as - Knoppix 6.0 / Adrianne 1.1.

Hope by now you guessed what is Knopper's wife called.... :)

Ok to end the post, dont worry...I wont create any Linux Distro. [Lol...what is my wife's name? Or rather what will be my wife's name?????]

To end, what if the Tennis "GOAT" [Greatest Of All Times] Roger Federer, decides to create a Linux under Mirka's name????

This is called "Height of irrelevance"!!!

Good Night,
Ananth Gouri