How to Change Your Console Fonts In Ubuntu [Geeks Trick]

By Damien | March 5, 2012 | 2 Comments

Very seldom do we need to work entirely on a console, but for those who do, you might like to change the font or the appearance of the console so it is more pleasing to the eye. Here is how you can do so in Ubuntu.

Note: the font used in the console is monospaced and is not the same as the ttf, otf fonts that we used for document and browsers. In addition, there is also a limited selection fonts that you can choose from.

Changing the console font is very easy. Here is what you need to do. Open a terminal and type:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

You will see this:

Press “Enter” to select the default.

Next, it will ask you for the character set the console should support. Similarly, press “Enter” to select the default.

The next screen is the one that is most important to you – changing the font used in the console. There are only a few choices: VGA, Fixed, Terminus, TerminusBold and TerminusBoldVGA. Fixed seems to have the best coverage for international scripts while Terminus is the most pleasing to the eyes. Make your choice with the arrow up/down key and press Enter.

Lastly, you can set the font size used in the console. The default is 16, but you can change it to a bigger or smaller font size.

To see the font change in action, you have to open a virtual console (not to be confused with the terminal).

1. Press “Alt + Ctrl + F1″ on your keyboard. The virtual console should open full screen. Login with your username and password.

2. Once you are logged into the console, type:

setupcon

3. You should see the font change immediately.

4. To get out of the console, press “Alt + Ctrl + F7″ on your keyboard. This will return you to the desktop.

That’s it.

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Hi,

If you only need virtual consoles like “gnome Terminal”, you can do this easily with by going  to there preference.For example in Gnome terminal go to Edit->Profile preference-> General

Here uncheck the “Use System Fixed width font”, Now you should be able to choose your own preferred font.

http://maketecheasier.com/ Damien Oh

Thanks. You can indeed change the font for virtual console, such as the terminal in the preferences setting. For this tutorial, I am referring to the system console.

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How to Fix Low Battery Power And Overheating Issue In Ubuntu 11.10

By Abhishek Prakash | March 2, 2012 | Leave a Comment

One of the many things that Linux users boast of is the better performance of the hardware in Linux as compared to Windows. Unfortunately, it has not been true in many cases. One of the major issues with the latest Ubuntu releases (11.04 and 11.10) were a dramatic decrease in the battery life along with overheating of laptops. The issue is faced by a large number of people that claimed to reduce the battery life by around 2 hours on average. Interestingly, Windows still performs better and gives greater battery life than the latest version of Ubuntu.

A lot has been discussed about the issue. Lots of bug reports has been filed but nothing conclusive came out. Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) versions for e.g., Ubuntu 10.10 and the upcoming 12.04 are known to perform better than Windows but it does not mean that one has to suffer from poor battery life until the LTS version 12.04 comes out. In this post we will discuss two workarounds that could help you in improving the battery performance. You can use either or both of them.

Improve battery life by using Jupiter

Jupiter is a Linux applet for display, power, and device control. It can be used to change screen resolution, screen orientation, disabling WiFi, bluetooth and touchpad, and above all, battery performance. Jupiter has 3 Performance Modes: Maximum Performance, Performance on demand and Power Saver (the one we are interested in). In Power Saver mode it underclocks the processor and hence improves the battery life.

Unfortunately, Jupiter doesn’t work by default with Ubuntu 11.10, but thanks to WebUpd8 team, we have a work around for it. Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/jupitersudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install jupiter

After installing it, you need to log out and login again. You can see Jupiter in your system tray on the top. You can select Power Saver mode from there. This picture could be helpful:

After you put it on power saver mode, the icon turns green. It help you in remembering what mode you are using. You can see a considerable improvement in both battery performance and over heating.

Changing the Grub configuration to improve the battery performance:

If you are not satisfied with Jupiter, you may want to use the other work around which is a Kernel tweak. It was found that battery and over heating issue is related the Linux kernel. Let’s see how to use this trick:

Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and open the Grub config file by using the following command:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Now here search for this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Replace the above line with this one and save the file:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash pcie_aspm=force"

Update the Grub by using this command:

sudo update-grub

This fix was mainly meant for Linux Kernel 2.6.38 and the issue was “supposed” to be solved in later versions of Linux Kernel but that, unfortunately, never happened.

PowerTop can also be used instead of Jupiter but personally, I preferred Jupiter over PowerTop. I hope these tips increase the battery life and solve the overheating problem of your laptop. I sincerely hope that things will be better with Ubuntu 12.04 which is bound to release in April’12. Your questions and suggestion are always welcomed. Cheers :)

Image credit: " target="_blank">Orange warning low battery signal by Big Stock Photo.

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Abhishek is a Software Engineer by profession and a Tech-Blogger by passion. He takes a keen interest in day-to-day computer life and wishes to share his experience with others to make their computer experience better and easier. He is the owner of increasingly popular tech blog Computer And You.Random PostClear for iOS: The Future of Simpler Technology Advertise hereRecommendationsTake Our PollFollow Us On Facebook About Make Tech Easier

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How to Install A Minimal (And Non-Bloated) Ubuntu On Your Old Laptop

By Damien | February 24, 2012 | 9 Comments

Ubuntu has always been said as the Linux distro for beginners and entry users. It comes with plenty of free software and most of the things will just work after you installed it. However, if you have noticed, the recent build of Ubuntu is getting more and more resource intensive (with more animation and effects) and also come bundled with plenty of software that you probably have no use for. In short, it is getting bloated and doesn’t run well on old laptop anymore (at least in my case). While you can install another distro like Linux Mint, another alternative is to strip off all the software and unnecessary stuff and install Ubuntu from scratch. Here is how you can install a minimal Ubuntu on your (old) PC.

To get started, we can use either the Ubuntu Server edition or the Ubuntu minimal CD as the base install. Both come with the minimum packages to get the distro running and don’t come with any pre-installed software. The Ubuntu Server edition is more focus on server usage though. For this tutorial, we will be using the Ubuntu Minimal CD.

1. Download Ubuntu Minimal (mini.iso) for your PC architecture. The file size is only less than 30MB.

2. You won’t be able to create a USB startup disk with this iso file, so the only way is to burn it into a bootable CD.

3. Make sure your PC/laptop is connected to a LAN network. Insert the CD into your CD-rom and boot up your computer from the ROM. This is what you will see. Select “Install”.

4. Select the language, follow by your location.

5. Let it detect your keyboard. Optionally, you can select “No”, you can select from a list of keyboard layout (the most widely used is English (US)).

6. Next, the installer will proceed to configure some files for networking. When it is done, it will prompt you to enter the hostname. This will be what you will see in the terminal later, so change the hostname to something more personal, like “my-laptop“.

7. Select the mirror for Ubuntu archive that is closest to your location. This allows you to update your system and retrieve packages faster.

8. Unless you are using a proxy to connect to the outside world, leave the HTTP proxy field blank.

9. The installer will now retrieve the necessary packages from the mirror site. Once it is done, it will prompt you to reformat your hard disk. I assume that you are going to use the whole hard disk, so in this case, select “Guided – use entire disk”. If not, you can select “Manual” and configure the partitioning accordingly. I won’t go into the detail here.

When prompted, select “Yes” to confirm the partition setting.

10. Now, sit back and let the installer do its work. Once it’s done, it will prompt you to enter your username, password and whether you want to encrypt your Home directory.

11. Go grab a coffee while the installer do the final installation on your PC.

12. When prompted on how you want the security update to be done, select “Install Security Update Automatically”.

13. The next part is the important part. Here is where you can choose what to install on this machine. Personally, I want to choose what to install on this system, so I am going to select “Manual Package Selection”. You can do otherwise, though.

14. The last thing it will install is the GRUB loader. Select this if this is the only OS running in the machine and the GRUB loader does not interfere with other bootloader.

15. Finally. this is what you will see when the installation is completed. Remove the CD from the CD-rom and select “Continue” to restart the computer.

Post Installation

Now that you have finished the installation, it is only half the battle. You still need to install the desktop manager and several required applications.

1. Restart the computer. Press “Alt + F1″ when the grub loader appears. This will bring you to the command prompt. (If you didn’t press “Alt + F1, you will only see a blank screen).

2. In the command prompt, first login with your username and password. Next, type the following:

sudo apt-get install gdm network-manager

This will install the gdm login manager and the network-manager. Optionally, you can replace the “gdm” with “lightdm” or “lxdm“. You can also use “wicd” as the alternative to network-manager.

3. Next, choose your desktop manager. You can choose to use Gnome, Openbox, LXDE, Fluxbox, XFCE, WindowMaker, etc.

For Gnome, installing the Gnome-core will install a whole bunch of Gnome library and several Gnome applications (including Synaptic). This is a good starting point for beginner.

sudo apt-get install gnome-core

For Openbox:

sudo apt-get install openbox

4. Lastly, start gdm

sudo start gdm

Note: I have problems getting lightdm to work with Openbox. It could be just my hardware problem, but since I can’t get it to work, I don’t recommend it here.

That’s it. Restart your PC. Once you are logged back in to the desktop, you can proceed to install all the applications you want/need. If Synaptic is not installed, use the following command to install:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

Enjoy!

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 Cool.  I’m gonna try this, I like the idea.

Ed

Minimal? Gnome? You are kidding, right?

http://maketecheasier.com/ Damien Oh

Gnome is used as an example. You can install whatever DE you want.

Tom Saunders

So…
What about the huge amount of users with old netbooks that dont have cd drives?

Personally I use and recommend Lubuntu which is snappy on my netbook (released oct 2008) 

Gord Campbell

You could call this, Archbuntu!

http://maketecheasier.com/ Damien Oh

I think this is even simpler than arch linux. 

Anonymous

@google-ebe2cac1067a471a156b80721e546342:disqus 
What about the huge amount of users with old netbooks that dont have cd drives?
  Everyone should check into a USB powered portable CD drive.  I use it all the time for forensics, etc.

Me

Wouldn’t just using the Debian Net install be easier and much the same ?

http://maketecheasier.com/ Damien Oh

 The procedure is almost similar, but personally, I am more familiar with Ubuntu than Debian.

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Opinion: Ubuntu needs to open up

Ubuntu needs to open up | News | TechRadar Updated 5 hours ago

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Tweet Page 1: Ubuntu needs to open up

Ubuntu has big ambitions, but how will we know if it achieves them?

One of the great things about Linux, and free software in general, is that it doesn't suffer the hyperbole that you find in other parts of the computer industry.

At least not in the user-community-developer sphere that we live in.

Our inbox rarely filters notifications of an imminent security disaster, for example, or messages marked as important because there's a new virus that's going to spread from our phones to our netbooks through our fridges.

If one of these emails does make it through, we enjoy replying by asking what impact this might have on Linux users. The response is nearly always: "What's Linux?"

The software, distributions and hardware emerging from the world of open community development often prefer to float on their own merits rather than those of a PR company. One exception might be the discussion on whether 2012 will be the year of Linux on the desktop, but that was a joke, and one long past its best.

But there's another exception, and that's the perennial Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is breaking away from the tradition of a free software company by ramping up both expectation and anticipation for its own products in ways usually associated with its proprietary competitors.

In some aspects, this is brilliant. The slick and professional HTML5 demo site that accompanied the release of 11.10, for instance, was a wonderful taster of what the Ubuntu desktop feels like. It fulfilled a genuine purpose by helping the uninitiated realise that Linux isn't just the command line or a wasted weekend trying to get audio to work.

It can actually be a slick desktop that looks as good as the latest release of OS X, and far better than that version of Windows where you can't even change the desktop background image. No other Linux distribution puts that amount of effort into trying to win new users, and Ubuntu deserves plenty of new ones as a result of that initiative.

Talkin' loud

Ubuntu has every right to shout about its success. It's still the most popular Linux distribution, and takes great pains to create a user experience that's different from other distributions.

But the team behind Ubuntu is also getting more proactive and shouty about its own largess and self-perpetuating prophesies - and it starts at the top. Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu's benevolent dictator for life, wrote on his blog that he wants to see "Ubuntu on phones, tablets, TVs and smart screens everywhere" by the time 14.04 is released (in just over two years).

This statement comes only months after he told the Ubuntu Developer's Conference in Budapest that he wanted to see 200 million users within four years. A good plan, and some nice big numbers, but we have difficulty believing Ubuntu will come close.

Without any question, if either of those goals were realised, we'd be ecstatic. We want Ubuntu to win. But we don't want its advantages and achievements to be lost in a cloud of moon-gazing rhetoric.

Numbers game

If, in 2015, Ubuntu has 200 million users, let's all have a party and we'll say sorry. Ubuntu would be an unprecedented success. But when the Ubuntu team can't even give you an accurate measure of how many people are using the distribution today, or how they're estimating their numbers, how can we trust predictions for the future?

Mark also mentioned, for example, that there are currently around 20 million Ubuntu users, up from their estimate of 12 million in 2010. That's a very healthy result, but why the secrecy in how these numbers are formed?

Why not open up how these figures were calculated and let us see the 10 times growth predicted for Ubuntu over the next few years ourselves. That way we can all celebrate.

This is something the Fedora project does, for example. The Fedora wiki statistics page lists as much data as it can, including unique IP access to the downloads in a week-by-week table, complete with percentage comparisons against the previous release and updates through the package repository.

This page also includes the important disclaimer about how the exact number of users can't be derived from these statistics alone.

But you can't argue against the openness in the statistics or the growth in Fedora's popularity from one release to the next. The numbers are in front of you, and we think the Ubuntu team should be prepared to do the same, especially when they're making such bold predictions for the future of their distribution.

Openness and transparency is what makes open source software development as brilliant as it is, and it's something our competitors can't touch. They should be our weapons of choice when it comes to marketing, not hyperbole.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First published in PC Plus Issue 316

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Tags: Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, open source, operating systemsTweetreddit!Stumbleupon  Your comments (1) Click to add a new commentoracle

Monday at 11:17 UTC

1. No your wrong Ubuntu and almost all the other distros suffer from a kind of inverse hyperbole that being “that Linux is so much better” than the dreaded MS alternative! Which is in itself an untruth.

What Ubuntu actually needs to do is stop worrying about how many people use it, lose the stupid name and get with the program that does away with command line instructions! And it can be done Android and iOS being two successful & notable examples!

THEN and only THEN will Ubuntu and dozens of other Linux “distro’s” make a genuine break into the mainstream.

At the moment most Linux is for those who either hate MS so much that they cannot allow its usability into their lives OR need or want to save money so badly that they will waste any amount of time "playing with the OS and trying to sort out corrupt syntax advice from the real thing " rather than doing any actual work! (Those and wannabe systems administrators of course!)

In an effort to embrace the world of open OS I chose Ubuntu initially but after realising “noobs” had to rely upon support forums, full of people who actually cannot help because in their hast to answer and show off their “knowledge” they type so quickly they get the all important syntax wrong! And woe betide any “noob” who dares to point that out!

So I gave up on Ubuntu and paid for a copy of SUSE only to find even then I was spending more time getting it to work than doing any work! An inability to get something as basic as a sound card working was the final straw for me and I went back to a product that “Does exactly what it says on the tin” Windows and Office!

The point of this post? Simply to say it really does not matter how many users Ubuntu has now, because for all the reasons I point out above I am prepared to bet there are far more EX Ubuntu and Linux users in the word than current ones!

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Ubuntu One Hits The One Million Users Mark – Upgrades Free Plan To 5 GB

Roberta Nilerud of Canonical has announced that their cloud storage service – Ubuntu One – has hit the one million users mark.

Ubuntu One is a cloud storage service from Canonical that is very tightly integrated into Ubuntu. Although Ubuntu One is installed by default in Ubuntu, it is also available on Windows and Android. Ubuntu One is also used to store the music bought from the Ubuntu One Music Store.

Announcing the milestone, Canonical has also decided to change the plans on offer. Initially, 2 GB of storage was provided to everyone for free. Now, they have announced that they are more than doubling that to 5 GB. Current users of Ubuntu One will see their store size upgraded automatically.

Canonical has also changed the earlier Mobile plan to the Music Streaming plan. With the Music Streaming plan, users will get 20 GB of storage and unlimited music streaming to their Android and iOS device for $3.99/month. The Android app is already available in the Market (check out our review of the app here) and the iOS app is coming soon.