Monday, October 29, 2007

How to find the UUID of device?

You can use the following command to find the UUID of devices in Linux
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/

This works with Ubuntu. Not sure about other distros.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Install Fedora Core 5/Suse 10 without burning CDs

Burning 4-5 CDs to install any modern distro like Fedora Core 5 or Suse 10 is a big pain in the neck. This tutorial will teach you how to install FC5 or Suse or any other distro without burning a single CD!!! This method, however, will only work if you already have Windows installed on your system and want to dual boot with Linux.

1. The first thing you will have to do is copy all the ISO files to your hard disk. Make sure that you copy all the files to the root of the partition and the partition must be formatted in FAT32. If you do not copy the ISO to the root of the partition (i.e. keep inside a folder) the setup will not able to detect the files.

2. Now use winrar to open the first ISO file (disc1). Go inside the folder "isolinux" and copy the files initrd.img and vmlinuz to your c:\boot. You will need to enable viewing of hidden and system files in order to locate c:\boot.

3. Now download the file called grub4dos from here. Extract the folder "boot" and the file "grldr" from the downloaded zip file. Inside the folder "boot" is another folder called "grub"; copy this folder to c:\boot. Copy the file "grldr" to c:\

4. Then open c:\boot\grub\menu.lst and add these following lines.

Code:
title Fedora Core 5 Install
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img

5. Now you have to add grub to your c:\boot.ini file. Open boot.ini and add this line in the end:

Code:
C:\grldr=”Start GRUB”

6. You are now ready to install FC5. Restart your PC and from the boot screen select "Start GRUB". This will load GRUB.

7. From the grub screen select "Fedora Core 5 Install". The setup will now start and you can now select the hard drive partition where you copied the ISO files.

Now sit back and let it install. No more burning and wasting discs and even no more changing CDs during install. After the installation is over you can delete the folder c:\boot\grub as well as c:\grldr and also the reference to this file from your boot.ini file, as these are no longer needed.

I just installed FC5 by this method so I can guarantee you that it will work. Enjoy!!!

UPDATE:

For Suse its a bit different. Instead of initrd.img and vmlinuz, you have to copy initrd and linux. So the changes to c:\boot\grub\menu.lst will be this

Code:
title Suse Install
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/linux
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd

Also you have to type the full name of the first ISO when it asks for the path. So write it down before you begin installation.
__________________
http://instantfundas.blogspot.com

source: here

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

How To Edit Right-click Menu in Windows?


A lot of programs you install will add themselves to the right-click menu of your files and/or folders. And most times, you have no choice in the matter and, as a result, your right-click menu can get very long with added items you don't even use. The last person I was helping with this had a right context menu so long that the Rename option was no longer visible!
Fortunately, you can easily remove those unwanted menu items, if you know the registry values to edit. And it's not at all difficult once you know the keys responsible for the additions.

For Files, the secret lies in the "context menu handlers" under the shellex subkey for "All Files" which, in the registry, is nothing but an asterisk - like a dos wildcard, which means the values entered apply to all files. It is at the very top of the Root key, right here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*shellexContextMenuHandlers

Click the the + sign next to the ContextMenuHandlers key, to expand it.
Now you will see some of the programs that have added items to your right-click menu. Simply delete the program keys you don't want.
Yup! It's that simple. If deleting makes you uneasy, just export the key before deleting it. Or, instead of deleting the values, disable them. Simply double click the default value for the program on the right hand pane and rename the clsid value by placing a period or dash in front of it.
ie; - {b5eedee0-c06e-11cf-8c56-444553540000}
Then exit the registry, refresh, and right click a file to see if the item was removed from the menu.
Some programs - like WinZip or WinRar - will add several items to your right click menu but all of them will be removed by deleting or disabling their one context menu handler.

Note that the above key only applies to the right click menu of files.
To remove entries from the right click context menu of folders, you need to navigate to the Folder and Drive keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTFoldershellexContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDriveshellexContextMenuHandlers

All you have to do is follow the same procedure as for Files - either disable or delete items you wish to remove.
Adding Items
Adding Items to the right click menu of Files and Folders is also fairly simple using the Registry. It just involves the creation of a few new keys for each item you wish to add. You edit the same keys used for removing items. Let's use Notepad as an example of an item you'd like to add to the right click menu of all your files or folders.

For folders, go to this key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Folder
Click the + sign next to Folder and expand it so that the Shell key is visible. Right click the Shell key and choose New>Key and name the key Notepad or whatever else you'd prefer (whatever the key is named is what will appear in the right-click menu). Now right click the new key you made and create another key named Command. Then, in the right hand pane, double click "Default" and enter Notepad.exe as the value.
Exit the registry, refresh, and right click any folder. Notepad should now be on the context menu.

For files, go here again:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*
Expand the * key and see if a Shell key exists. If it does exist, follow the same procedure as for folders. If it does not exist, you'll have to create a new Shell first. Just right click the * key and choose New>Key and name it Shell. Then right click the Shell key and continue on the same way you did for adding items to the right click menu of folders.
Once done, Notepad should appear as an option in the right click menu of all your files.

source: here

View all video files as thumbnails in Windows XP

Registry Tweak(A simple tweak)

While in thumbnails view in explorer of Win XP, we can see video's starting frame but only for some of the predefined video file's extensions like mpg, mpeg, avi but not for extensions like rmvb(Real media files) and 3gp & 3g2(Mobile video files)
Here we will just copy the settings of one extension to another through registry editor and we will be able to view their first frame in thumbnail just like as we are able with pre-defined files.
Note: Registry should be handled with care, I would recommend taking a backup before you do any changes in the registry. I don't take responsibility of any damage or loss incurred by users while implementing this tweak.
Steps For Doing It:
1> Open Registry Editor (By typing regedit at the Run prompt)
2> Select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and find .avi (any of the mpg,mpeg will do)
3> Export its registry settings (will be saved as *.reg)
4> Right click on *.reg file and select Edit
5> Now if you want *.divx files to be treated in the same way as *.avi files then just replace avi by divx in the file. Save it and execute it.
6> Repeat Step5 for various files of whom you want to change the behaviour.

Note:This doesnt work for *.vob files.

source: here

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Shutdown Windows XP quickly from Task Manager


Want to shutdown your computer quickly and safely??? There is an easy way using Taskmanager.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring task manager
Press the Ctrl key and select Shutdown>TurnOff
Keep the Ctrl key pressed for a few seconds, the System will turnoff and there is no harm done!!!

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Hide entire hard drives c: or d: or f: without regedit


1. Go to Start > run > type "diskpart".
A DOS window will appear with following discription.
DISKPART>

2. Then type "list volume"

The result will look like : ------

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
--------------- --- -------- ---- ------ ---- ------ ----
Volume 0 F CD-ROM
Volume 1 C Window_XP NTFS Partition 7000MB Healthy System
Volume 2 D Softwares NTFS Partition 8000MB Healthy
Volume 3 E Songs NTFS Partition 8000MB Healthy

3. Suppose u wanna hide drive E then type "select volume 3"

Then a message will appear in same winwods { Volume 3 is the selected volume}

4. Now type "remove letter E"
Now a message will come { Diskpart Removed the Drive letter }
sometime it requires the reboot the computer .

Diskpart will remove the letter .Windows XP is not having capabilty to identify the unkown volume.

Your Data is safe now from all unauthorised users.
To access the content of hidden Drive repeat the process mentioned above. But in 4th step replace " remove" to "assign"
i mean type "assign letter E"

source: here

Install Firefox Themes Offline


There are so many nice & beautiful firefox themes scattered all over
the internet. You install a firefox theme while you are online & later
loose everything when you have to reinstall your OS.

So you have to redownload those themes again. My purpose for starting this thread is to save & use those cool themes later when you have to reinstall your OS or your firefox & themes installation goes bad so that you donn't have redownload or reinstall those themes again.

Here We Go:

1. Download & save your desired themes (those are available in .jar files)
from firefox official website or any other website using opera, IE,
safari, Koqueror etc. (If U can use firefox to download & save those
theme ie .jar files no problem but donn't install)
Just remember download & save those files into your hard disk

2. Open the folder where U have downloaded those files & open Firefox. Go to
Tools > Addons > & click on Themes. now minimize firefox but keep the Addons window open.

3. Now keep open the folder on which you have downloaded those themes (if that folder
is not already opened) and the addon window side by side or keep maximize both.

4. Now drag and & drop your desired theme file into left pan of the theme manager. You will
be prompted to install that theme. Install that theme & restart firefox.

5. Now again go to Tools > Addon > Themes and on the left pan you should see your desired
theme. Select that & click use theme or double click on that theme.

6. Restart firefox & you are ready to go. ENJOY.

http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tutcb9.gif

Tested with firefox 2.0.0.4 on windows xp sp2

source: here

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Axel, Super fast download manager for Linux

Tired by the speed of ordinary download managers?? Try axel. Lightweight , fast and efficient download manager. It is capable of juicing every bit of your available bandwidth and that means you don't have to wait too long to finish download. For more details click here

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Batch download using wget

If I want to download all files in a directory of a website, i have to perform a long wget command, they is what I do at first:

wget -nd -r -l1 --no-parent http://www.foo.com/mp3/

This works fine, but sometimes it gives some silly index.@xx files that wish I do not want. To make your directory clean, if you knows the file format you want, you can do this:

wget -nd -r -l1 --no-parent -A.mp3 -A.wma http://www.foo.com/mp3/

I am going to explain briefly what is the meaning of the options I speficied.
-nd no directory, by default wget creates a dir
-r recursively download
-l1 (L one) level 1, download only of that particular folder, don’t go depth on it.
–no-parent I definately don’t want the parent’s files

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Using wget through proxy servers


To use wget through proxies.
Set the environment variable using the following command
export http_proxy="http://proxy.example.com:8080"

Similarly or ftp
export ftp_proxy="http://proxy.example.com:8080"

For proxies that require authentication use --proxy-user=proxyusename --proxy-password=urpassword switch along with the wget command.
For example wget --proxy-user=name --proxy-password=password http://somelocation/index.html

For Details visit this site