Debian Linux Tips

I ran Debian Etch (Testing) about the time I wrote most of this page.

Hardware

• Disable second sound card so that flash will work

  1. Add a line like the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

     blacklist snd_ens1371

  2. Reboot.

• Get KDE Media Daemon to pop up when inserting CD or removable device

  Install "hal".

• Enable mounted CDs to be ejected when eject button is pushed

  1. Open /etc/sysctl.conf and add the following line:

     dev.cdrom.lock=0

  2. Reboot your computer.

• Enable USB devices to be mounted by users without adding entry in /etc/fstab

  Install pmount.

• Install Nvidia Graphics Driver

  Follow the NvidiaGraphicsDrivers guide in the Debian wiki and then install and run nvidia-xconfig to enable the Nvidia Driver.

Microsoft

• Allow all users to write to Windows 98 partition

  Add a line like this to /etc/fstab:

  /dev/hdb1       /windows    vfat    users,rw,umask=000   0  0

• Run old DOS games

  Install and use dosbox:

  apt-get install dosbox

Multimedia and Plugins

• Enable install of multimedia codecs

  Follow the instructions at the bottom of the Unofficial Debian Packages page.

• Make Fullscreen in MPlayer work

  Open /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf and find:

  zoom=no                 # Enable software scaling (powerful CPU needed)

  change it to:

  zoom=yes                # Enable software scaling (powerful CPU needed)

• Get playback of embedded MIDI files working in Firefox

  Install timidity and newest mozplugger from http://mozplugger.mozdev.org/. Find the newest Debian (.deb) package from http://dagobah.ucc.asn.au/mozplugger/ and use that.

• Get embedded PDFs in Firefox with Acrobat Reader working

  1. Install newest mozplugger from http://mozplugger.mozdev.org/. Find the newest Debian (.deb) package from http://dagobah.ucc.asn.au/mozplugger/ and use that.

  2. Open /etc/mozpluggerrc and replace:

      ifelse(esyscmd([acroread -helpall | grep openInNewWindow]),[],[
       define(ACROREAD,[ACROREAD_FLAGS(): acroread ACROREAD_OPTS() +useFrontEndProgram "$file"])
      ],[
       define(ACROREAD,[ACROREAD_FLAGS(): acroread ACROREAD_OPTS() -openInNewWindow "$file"])
      ])
     

     with:

     # ifelse(esyscmd([acroread -helpall | grep openInNewWindow]),[],[
     #  define(ACROREAD,[ACROREAD_FLAGS(): acroread ACROREAD_OPTS() +useFrontEndProgram "$file"])
     # ],[
       define(ACROREAD,[ACROREAD_FLAGS(): acroread ACROREAD_OPTS() -openInNewWindow "$file"])
     # ])
     

• Get embedded WAV files working in Firefox

  Install mozilla-mplayer:

  apt-get install mozilla-mplayer

• Install Sun Java Plugin for Firefox

  Enable the Debian Unofficial repository and install the "mozilla-sun-j2se5.0-binary" package.

• Easily create flash video tutorials

  Enable the Debian Unofficial repository and install the "wink-binary" package.

  You can find out more about Wink by visiting the Wink Homepage.

Packages

• Find which files come in which packages

  I needed to find out the packages that provided "sane-config". I found out that using "apt-file" allows you to search and find in which package a file is included.

  To search packages file contents with apt-file:

  1. Install apt-file:

     apt-get install apt-file

  2. Resynchronize the lists of the contents of packages from their sources:

     apt-file update

  3. Find which packages contains a certain file. (Example: "sane-config"):

     apt-file search sane-config

• Install a few packages from unstable and keep everything else on testing

  1. Open /etc/apt/apt.conf and add this line:

     Apt::Default-Release "testing";

  2. Open /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following 2 lines:

     #### unstable #########
     deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main non-free contrib

  3. Run:

     apt-get update

  Now you can choose to install packages from unstable but your packages from testing will not be upgraded to be unstable versions.

Improving Looks

• Make GTK apps look better

  1. Run:

     apt-get install gtk2-engines-clearlooks gtk-theme-switch

  2. Run:

     gtk-theme-switch2

  3. Choose "Clearlooks" and click Apply.

• Remove KDE Dragon from Logout menu

  Run this command:

  rm /usr/share/apps/ksmserver/pics/shutdownkonq.png

Old stuff

I run Debian Sarge (Stable). On this page is fixes for problems I have run into and some tips for setting stuff up.

• Work around inconsistent naming of network interfaces by the kernel

  I had trouble with the names of eth0 and eth1 being switched randomly each time I booted up. This made network configuration very troublesome. Read below for the solution that I found.

  From Dealing with inconsistent naming of interfaces by the kernel and Laptop Ethernet Configuration

  1. Install the get-mac-address.sh script:

     # install -m770 /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples/get-mac-address.sh \
             /usr/local/sbin/

  2. Open "/etc/networking/interfaces" and make it have a section like this in it (change the MAC addresses to those of your network cards):

     mapping eth0
             script /usr/local/sbin/get-mac-address.sh
             map 00:0C:6E:B3:A0:C0 net1
             map 00:05:5D:4B:96:7F lan1
     
     mapping eth1
             script /usr/local/sbin/get-mac-address.sh
             map 00:0C:6E:B3:A0:C0 net1
             map 00:05:5D:4B:96:7F lan1
     
     auto eth0
     auto eth1
     
     # Internet
     iface net1 inet dhcp
     
     # Lan
     # iface eth0 inet dhcp
     iface lan1 inet static
             address 192.168.1.7
             netmask 255.255.255.0
             # gateway 192.168.1.1
     

• Fix "Superblox last write time is in the future" error"

  Open "/etc/default/rcS" and make sure the following options are set:

  # Set UTC=yes if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT), and UTC=no if not.
  UTC=yes
  # Set FSCKFIX to "yes" if you want to add "-y" to the fsck at startup.
  FSCKFIX=yes

• Enable install of msttcorefonts

  Open "/etc/apt/sources.list" and change the following line from:

  deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main

  to:

  deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main contrib

• Easily install Java plugin for Firefox

  Follow the instructions about the Java packages for Debian.

• Get Minolta-QMS Magicolor 2300 DL Printer working

  Follow the instructions on this page: Linux Hardware Info Minolta Magicolor 2300DL < Main < TWiki:.