A new version meant fresh installation of all the open source GIS goodies starting with QGIS. The latest version 1.4.0-Enceladus for Lucid is already available in the Launchpad UbuntuGIS repository and with a new command (add-apt-repository) for updating /etc/apt/sources.list with locations of repositories, the installation is simple and straightforward.

Bring up the terminal and issue the following commands.

Add the repository using:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable

Make apt aware of the new repository:

sudo apt-get update

Install QGIS

sudo apt-get install qgis

Once the installation is done, open QGIS from Applications -> Science -> Quantum GIS

To treat yourself with a clean desktop, bring up the run application dialog with Alt + F2.

Type gconf-editor to invoke the GNOME configuration editor. Navigate to the key /apps/nautilus/preferences and scroll down to the key show_desktop.  Uncheck the box next to the key under the value column.

P.S. : Right-clicking on the desktop is disabled with this setting

Try opening a .rar file with the Archive Manager and you are presented with an error.

Fixing this problem requires installation of an unarchiver for .rar files. This is readily available in the repositories in two packages – unrar and unrar-free. The unrar package is from RARLAB and the unrar-free is from Gna! which is the free software version of the non-free unrar utility.

Fire up the terminal and issue the command
sudo apt-get install unrar-free

Once the package is installed, Archive Manager should now be able to extract files with the .rar extension.

Off late, I’ve been trying to do all my computer related work in Ubuntu, trying to avoid Windows to the possible extent, including watching movies. VLC is what I use on Windows, because of its ability to play a wide range of formats and ease of use. As VLC has a Linux version too, I decided to stick with it in Ubuntu as well.

Problem:

All my movies of the .avi format do play in VLC with excellent video quality but without an audio output. To fix this issue, all that was required was a simple change in the output module of the audio settings.

To open VLC Media Player:

Applications -> Sound & Video -> VLC media player

Note: In my case, the audio output module was set to default, which I think is the reason for lack of audio playback. Make sure you have also plugin for vlc installed before changing the settings.

To install Alsa plugin for VLC:

At the terminal: sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-alsa

Change the settings:

Once you have VLC opened, go to Settings -> Preferences

Expland the audio section of the settings and you’ll find three sub-sections Filters, Output modules and Visualizations.

Output Modules is what we are concerned with. Click this section and make sure the Advanced Options checkbox is selected in the bottom right of the Preferences window.

Fix it:

Change the audio output module (if set to default) to ALSA audio output. Save the settings, close VLC and restart the application. And that’s it, pretty simple huh…

There are several maps to choose from – countries, continents and the world.

KGeography comes with six different ways of learning Geography.
1. Browse Map – With this option, a click on the map identifies the country, or state (province) with its capital. In case, the feature clicked is a country, you are presented with its flag too.

2. Click Division on Map – Select the number of questions you would like to attempt, and identify the country or state that is asked for by clicking on the map. The results are displayed once you are done with answering all the questions.

3. Guess Division From Its Capital – Select the number of questions just like the one above, and this time you’ve got to select country / state of the four options provided, for capitals. The map interface does not show up for this section.

4. Guess Capital of Division – Similar to guessing divisions from capitals, but the other way round. Select the right capital from the options provided for the country being questioned upon.

5. Guess Division From Its Flag – A flag is presented, with four options. Select the country that the flag belongs to. This option is disabled when the map is that of a country as individual states (provinces do not have flags in most of the countries.

6. Guess Flag of Division – Identify the right flag out of four option with pictures of flags, for the country / state in question.

Installation: Fire up the terminal and issue the command
sudo apt-get install kgeography and you have an interactive geography learning tool ]]> http://geowebinfo.com/2008/07/12/kgeography-a-geography-learning-tool/feed/ 0 http://geowebinfo.com/2008/06/08/install-oracle-10g-express-edition-in-ubuntu-hardy/ http://geowebinfo.com/2008/06/08/install-oracle-10g-express-edition-in-ubuntu-hardy/#comments Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:35:00 +0000 Sriharsha Vankadara http://geowebinfo.com/?p=24 Oracle 10g Express Edition is one of the best ways to learn Oracle SQL and the ‘Oracle Architecture’ without much consumption of your system resources and space unlike an Enterprise Edition.

Installing Express Edition in Linux is fast and easy unlike that in Windows.Guess, that is what makes Linux so efficient and robust.

First download the debian package from Oracle after accepting the license agreement. If you would be using Oracle 10g XE on your personal computer or laptop, you should go about downloading the Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Universal) debian package (*.deb).

When the download is complete, open a terminal window and issue the command:
sudo dpkg -i oracle-xe-universal_10.2.0.1-1.0_i386.deb

Once the installation is done, it is required to configure the XE server by issuing the command: sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

During configuration, you are prompted to enter information for the following:
1. A valid HTTP port for the Oracle XE graphical user interface/database homepage (default port is 8080)
2. A valid port for the Oracle database listener (default is 1521)
3. Password for the administrative accounts sys and sysdba and
4. If you want the database to start automatically at system start-up

With appropriate responses for the above prompts, the configuration is complete and you have a fully functioning ORDBMS on your system.

Working on Oracle is fun, when you key in queries at the command line rather than using a graphical user interface. You can access the SQL Command Line interface from Applications -> Oracle Database 10g Express Edition -> Run SQL Command Line.

There’s yet another way to access the SQL command line, which is from the terminal session. To fire up an SQL session from the terminal window, you have to set up a few environment variables in the /etc/bash.bashrc file. Add the following lines at the end of the file:

<span style="font-size:100%;">ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server<br />PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin<br />export ORACLE_HOME<br />export ORACLE_SID=XE<br />export PATH</span><br />