Merry Christmas!

To all of you that celebrate, Merry Christmas! If you are still not in the Christmas spirit yet, then maybe the following wallpapers might help!













If a wallpaper for your computer just isn't enough then why not try out a fancy little application called Xsnow. Read my post last year to find out how to install and run: Xmas Xsnow!

Merry Christmas to all of my readers!

YouTube-HTML5-ifier For Google Chrome

Google Chrome Beta has been out for a few weeks now for Linux, and after a lot of playing around with it, it has soon become my most used browser. The only problem I could ever find with it is the large CPU usage when using any flash applications. Browsing websites such as Youtube and watching videos on there was a bit of a painful, and slow task - Until I came across the Youtube HTML5-ifier.





This useful extension contains a script which replaces the standard Flash based videos on Youtube with the new HTML5 video tag. These video will require much less CPU power. Not only using less CPU power, it automatically attempts to play in the best possible format (HD if available). The only down side to this extension so far is that any videos that are embedded on sites other then Youtube will still use the old Flash based player, and annotations will not be displayed for any videos. However, this extension is still in development, and the developer is currently working on these issues.

To download this extension, visit: Youtube HTML5-ifier

Install Backtrack Applications On Your Ubuntu

Backtrack is one of the most top rated Live Linux Distributions (meaning you can run straight from the CD). Backtrack is focused on penetration testing, and comes pre-packed with many applications to analyse and test your LAN, Wifi, Bluetooth... the list continues.

I have often had a play around with Backtrack, and find the tools and applications very useful. However, with the free storage space on my laptop is becoming ever more limited, and I have no room to install it under a Virtual Machine. The below instructions will show you how you can install all of the Backtrack applications on your current Ubuntu installation.

Add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://repo.offensive-security.com/dist/bt4 binary/

Now to import the Backtrack GPG key and to update the sources:

wget http://repo.offensive-security.com/dist/bt4/binary/public-key && sudo apt-key add public-key && sudo apt-get update

Fantastic! Now we have all the new Backtrack applications ready to install. You can find these applications in your Synaptic Package Manager, under the sections BackTrack - Web (for example). If you are wanting to install all of the new applications quickly, you can run the following command:

links -dump http://repo.offensive-security.com/dist/bt4/binary/ | awk '{print $3}' | grep -i deb | cut -d . -f 1 > backtrack.txt

This command will use the links text browser to grab a complete list of packages and store them into the file backtrack.txt. Each application will then be installed one by one. Be warned! There are 182 applications listed within the text file that you make. This may take some time downloading, all depending on how fast your internet connection is.

GetDeb V2 Beta

For the past three years, GetDeb.net has been the home to newest updates of many of the popular applications available for Ubuntu. In the past, the only real way to obtain any of the software is to go onto their site, download, and install. There was a way to download using apt-get by adding the following line to your sources list:

deb http://ubuntu.org.ua/ getdeb/

If you were luckily enough not to get the classic 404 error message, the downloads were often on the slow side.


GetDeb V2 Beta now offers a fully functional repository that gives users access to the pre-compiled deb packages as soon as they are available on the site. They are very often placed on GetDeb's managed servers before they are placed within their own official repositories!

Gaining access to their repository is made very easy by downloading and installing their GetDeb Package[Right Click, Save As]. Once downloaded, double click to install. If you prefer to do things via the command line, then run the following command:

wget http://archive.getdeb.net/install_deb/getdeb-repository_0.1-1~getdeb1_all.deb && dpkg -i getdeb-repository_0.1-1~getdeb1_all.deb

If you prefer to add their repository manually, then you will need to add the following line at the bottom of your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu karmic-getdeb apps

Then to add the GPG key:

wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

The Falling Sand Game

Be Warned! This is a very addictive game! I am not normally a fan of any type of computing games, but I found myself playing on this for hours on end.

I'm sure most of you would have heard and played the flash version of this game somewhere on the Internet. There are many different version of it now, each with their own set of elements to play around and experiment with. The original version of this game is now available to download for Linux. You may wonder why you would want to download it, and just play it online. Well The main benefit of downloading this game, is that you get to install and use hundreds of different mods that various people have made for it. Some of the mods include a fireworks pack, volcano add-ons and an acid mod. Some of the more extreme mods give you the ability to make guns, cars, and even life forms!





To download The Falling Sand Game:

wget http://www.piettes.com/fallingsandgame/fsg-4.4

Once downloaded, you must set the correct permissions so that you can execute it:

chmod u+x fgs-4.4

Many people have said that they are unable to get this game to work. Tinivole from the UbuntuForums has found the solution for this:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libexpat.so /usr/lib/libexpat.so.0

Ubuntu 9.04 Wallpapers

Spice up your new Ubuntu 9.04 installation with some of these fantastic wallpapers. These are all Alpha release wallpapers that didn't quite manage to make it into the final release. I am sure you will agree with me that many of these really should have made it!

All of the below images, and many more can be found from the Artwork section of the official Ubuntu Wiki

Save A List Of Installed Applications On Linux

Firstly I would like to apologize for the lack of updates to this site over the last few weeks. This is down to some personal problems I have been having, and due to Jaunty messing with my display on my MSI Wind. All is back to normal now, and I'm ready to go!

I have recently used this very neat trick within the dpkg packet manager. Have you ever started a fresh install, and forgot which applications you had installed on your old installation? It's a pain. Even when you think you have them all installed, you go to do something, and realize Damn! I forgot to install that.

If you load up a blank terminal, and run the following command:

dpkg --get-selections > apps.txt

This will store a list of every application that is currently installed to a file called apps.txt. If you are wanting to re-install your OS, then make sure that you save this file to a USB stick!

Once you are ready to install all your applications again:

dpkg --set-selections < apps.txt
dselect update
apt-get dselect-upgrade show

Now after a lot of downloading and installing, you will once have all of your applications installed again. It may be an idea before you re-install your OS to back up the /etc/apt/sources.list file, so that you are able to download the applications that you may of got else where.

If you have any questions about this methord, then please leave a comment!