Linux – Page 2 – Paul's Tech Talk

Installing Wine on Linux Mint (Cinnamon)

PaulFebruary 25, 2020

Windows Programs

As you know not everything might be on Linux or ported to Linux. So what is a person to do when they find out that they need a particular program. Lately I have been wondering what Wine has been up to lately. I heard about Wine a few years ago, it wasn’t very stable and you had even more problems then you wanted with this little Linux program. Let’s back up and tell you what Wine is supposed to do. Wine allows Linux users to run Windows programs in a Virtual Windows Desktop like environment. When you installed Linux you probably didn’t even think about the possibility that you might need program. Wine is here for that one reason.

Don’t Wine about it

What’s Wine Good for? It general it is used to play a lot of Windows Game on Linux. From Spore, to Call of Duty, to probably even EVE. I know most of these games will need a Good Graphics Processing Unit to play on Any system. I’ve seen people play Sims 3 on Linux and run very Smoothly. I personally use Wine for programs that I might need to fix Clients computers with. Each users needs are a little bit different and most of the time may or may not work with Wine. So you will need to know what you might need to try with Wine before going all in with Linux. Wine has a great list of apps and programs that will work with it. People have been trying programs and submitting them to Wine For review of how to make them work better.

More Stability

I’ve used Wine in the past few years I think the last time I played around with it was in 2015 but I had some difficulty installing it and using. The Wine developers definitely got it more user friendly and now most things are working much better than before. I even tried my Yumi Multiboot USB tool with Wine and seems to run just fine as long as you don’t use persistence option when you create an ISO on the USB. Hopefully they will fix some of these issue but it might not be fixable due to Wine capabilities.

Do you use Wine? Why Do you use it? Have you left Windows behind? Did you find it hard or easier to do so? Why did you do that? Why not leave a comment and answer all these questions and tell me your experiences with Linux.

How to Install your Favorite Apps on Linux OS.

PaulFebruary 4, 2020

Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels

Command Line Rocks

I simply love using command in Linux. I currently using Linux Mint because I didn’t want to upgrade my laptop to Windows 10. If you know anything about Linux, they seldom install the necessary apps for Laptops or Desktops. You’d have to install them separately and some of the apps do some really useful things on Linux. Such as the touch pad inidcator which will disable the touch pad when you are typing or when you are using a mouse. I hate to use the Graphical User Interface to find and install these apps. So I decided to create a shell script to install the needed laptop apps for any installation of Linux on a Laptop. I do like to install programs from the GUI but that is when I am looking to install one program or just curious what they’ve added to the Synaptic Package Manager. Since most of these apps are open sourced, I thought it would be nice to show you how to create a shell script that you might want to use from time to time. The nice thing this helps if you are re-installing Linux or installing Linux on a new laptop Linux.

Creating a Shell Script

Before you begin this process, you’ll want to wrap your head around how to create the Linux script. Once you learn about the process of creating the script. You will understand more about the next process but you should at least get the basics so you can know what you can and can’t do in a script. A shell script is almost like a batch file in Windows and you can do a lot of things in it. Some things you can do are If/then or Echo, or Sudo commands. If you want to make a complicated menu then that is fine also. I believe simplistic is best. So I created my own little simple script to install the laptop apps that will help me on my laptop.

Laptop-linuxinstall.sh

echo Installing Touchpad Inidcator
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt update
sudo apt install touchpad-indicator

echo installing cpu frequency Inidcator
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:artfwo/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt-get indicator-cpufreq

echo Installing Battery Optimization
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw
sudo tlp start

echo Installing Laptop Mode Tools
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install laptop-mode-tools

You could easily copy this and paste it into a text editor and start using it right away but I hope you at least learn about scripting. This script will work with Linux Mint or Ubuntu, but I am unclear if it will work with other Linux OS. This is why you will want to learn the create your own script because you might have to modify or add new lines into the script. If you decide to use Laptop Mode tools, I suggest you read about how to configure the tools once you installed it.

Changing Permission in Linux

Changing Permissions

Once you have created the script and saved it to a file you will need to change the permissions of the file so Linux can run it from command line or if you decide to run it from the GUI. You can either right click the file > Properties then go into permissions (See above for example) and check mark “Allow executing file as a program” or go into terminal mode.

Go to where the file is located and type “sudo chmod +x filename.sh” and enter your Password. Once this is done you can now either use the GUI or type “./locationoffile/file.sh” in the terminal.

All is Good!

After you have done all that, You now should keep the shell script on several locations so you can always use it if you need it. I occasionally like to reinstall Linux to keep the system running smoothly so that is why I created shell scripts to install my favorite programs or stuff I might want to use on my laptop. Do you have a favorite application or a suggestion please feel free to leave a comment below. I’d love to hear what you install on your Linux OS and why.

Three ways to speed up your Laptop

PaulFebruary 1, 2020

Laptops all around

You probably got a old laptop, which is probably slow and very sluggish. It is a single, double, or quad core low megahertz system and you really can’t do much with it because it is so unbearable slow. I grew up with 9600 baud rates, for the younger generation that is very slow internet. It can be very disheartening to have to just wait for the system to boot or a program to run. You could of even bought this laptop from a yard sale. So what can you do with this laptop besides make it a door stop? This article will tell you how I refurbish my laptops to make them faster and more responsive when I don’t want to buy a better laptop.

2x or 3x more RAM!

If your laptop can support another laptop memory module then you should install another RAM module. It however is dependent on what speed of ram you currently have installed. If your laptop only has one module slot you will need to go buy a bigger ram and install it instead the one you have. So you need to know how big you can install into the laptop. You can easily Google it and find out how much you can add to your laptop. I wouldn’t install anything to big, something like 8 GB to 16 GB will do to make it even faster. The faster the ram speed the faster the system will respond but it must be capable with the current module so I suggest installing the same speed if you aren’t going to replace the module.

Replace the HDD with SDD

If you’re considering doing this, I strongly recommend you backup your current system. Remember the rule of 3. You should always have at least 3 different ways to restore your current system. What’s is an SSD? It is short for Solid State Drives and don’t use mechanical plates to write data. Think of a HDD has having several layers of DVD plates that are much smaller and use magnetism to read and write data. SSD are almost like RAM and have no moving parts and thus are more responsive to reading and writing which makes booting the system way faster than you probably ever realize. You can find some SSD at Amazon if you need one. You can find some really cheap SSD because you probably don’t need a lot of space for your old laptop,\.

Install Linux

I’ve talked about this before but I will say this again. If you are using a really old laptop you probably can’t use Windows 10 and since Windows 7 is at it’s End of life. You really can’t go wrong, by going to opensource operating system. I personally love Linux Mint but I am sure there are other Linux system that might be better for your laptop because it might require a very simple Linux desktop. You want your system to boot up and be able to use your laptop with ease this is definitely the best recommendation I can give you. If you are planning to install windows 10, you should make sure your laptop can support it.

Got a favorite Linux system? Or maybe something else to make your Laptop speed up and more responsive why not leave a comment and let me know and others.

Webhost Deathmatch: Linux Vs. Windows

PaulJuly 29, 2013

When you choose a desktop operating system, there is a pretty significant difference between Windows and Linux. The user interfaces are vastly disparate, many applications are designed for one OS or the other and the underlying kernels are worlds apart. The same concept applies for Linux VPS hosting and Windows hosting. While the differences in user experience tends to be lessened because you’re typically working through control panels, and not the operating system proper, you still have features, scripts and technology that one server OS supports that the other doesn’t. Here’s what you need to know.

Script Support

The script languages supported by Windows and Linux differ greatly. Perl and CGI are both difficult to support on Windows, while Windows technologies aren’t supported on Linux servers at all. While the latest Windows server operating system supports PHP, you aren’t guaranteed to have that version of Windows on specific hosts, so confirm the OS version if you want PHP scripts to work properly on a Windows server. Always keep essential script support in mind when you choose the server operating system. Scripting really is the primary decision maker for choosing Windows or Linux, as the two operating systems don’t share a lot of cross-platform scripting support.

Pricing

Linux distributions are generally free and are all open source operating systems. Some distros do require a paid commercial support package, but the pricing and overhead is less expensive than comparable Windows servers, due to Windows’ licensing costs. Windows also depends upon more hardware resources to run properly, requiring a more powerful server than you would otherwise use. Keep your price point in mind, and be aware of the capabilities you’ll get with Windows compared to Linux.

Microsoft Technologies

If you’re using FrontPage extensions, ASP, ASP.NET or .NET, you are essentially locked into a Windows server. Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to use this technology on Linux, BSD or OS X servers, although some emulation is possible. However, performance is not optimal, and it tends to take a lot more time and energy than just getting a Windows server on hand.

Database Technology

Database-driven scripts are common in web applications, and Linux database support covers MySQL technology. It does not, however, cover Access databases or Microsoft SQL. Enterprise-level applications use extensive database technology, and Access is great at handling high volumes of fields and information. If you need a specific type of database, confirm it is compatible with the server operating system you are choosing.

Security

Linux is widely considered a more secure operating system than Windows, mostly because the Linux architecture is not as easy for virus creators to program for. The lack of executable support in Linux prevents standard viruses from working, and security holes are plugged up by the many programmers looking at the open source code. Windows gets attacked by hackers on a consistent basis, and users have to wait for Microsoft to develop and deploy patches.

Which do you prefer for web hosting: Linux or Windows? Tell us in the comments.

How computer viruses use word of mouth to infect systems!

PaulMarch 8, 2012

Social Networks Hype Cycle (Photo credit: fredcavazza)

Social Network is Culprit!

I remember some very interesting Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites used in the past to get people to click on an infected link. This is one of the oldest techniques. The virus post something on your twitter account or your Facebook account about something really interesting. Even if you trust your friend, sometimes the friend or twitter account that you know aren’t really in control of what they post. This is the first line of trust that the virus makers use to spread their viruses until other computers and systems. You should never click any link unless you know where it is going. Although this is becoming less and less troublesome, I am sure it isn’t going away but just biding it’s time to come out and strike another day.