System Information

If, like me, you've come from a Windows background, you may be missing some of those great utilities that do the work for you. I was reminded of one in particular while browsing Scott Mueller's (excellent) Upgrading and Repairing PCs this morning: CPU-Z. This is a peerless resource if you want to review system information in a Windows environment.

So, is there an equivalent for Linux?

Most experienced Linux users will get this information from the terminal and save themselves the bother of installing a new package. After all, it's a simple command and how often do you really need this information? Just open a terminal and type:

sudo lshw |more

If you prefer, you can pipe the output to a text file to make it easier to read and search:

sudo lshw |more >> /home/username/directory_name/document_name.txt

Just change the file path (the red text in the code example) to suit your particular location.
However, if you really are determined to have a utility that does all the heavy lifting and simply presents the data in a similar format to CPU-Z, give i-nex a look.

It's not, perhaps, as polished as CPU-Z but all the relevant data is there and it is easier to find than searching through the output from the lshw command. To install the package you also need to install the gambas3 package.

Open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nemh/gambas3
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:i-nex-development-team/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install i-nex

Sources & References:

• CPUID: CPU-Z
• i-nex.sourceforge.net: Home
• Mueller S: Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 20^th Edition (p.72) (Amazon UK)

Anonymizing YouTube

A friend of mine asked me if it is possible to anonymize his YouTube account. Nowadays, it seems that Google (or Facebook) owns everything on the web and if you want a YouTube account, you have to have a Google+ account. However, after a lot of fannying around, I discovered that you don't have to link your Google+ account to YouTube and you can login to YouTube under a pseudonym.

• Sign into YouTube and click the arrow next to your profile name and picture (top right hand side of the webpage.
  
  
  
  
• Select the YouTube Settings option from the left hand menu
  
  
  
  
• Click the Disconnect Channel from Google+ option
  
  
• You'll be directed to a Rename channel dialog where you will either revert to your original YouTube name or be forced to choose a new one.
  

Sources & References:

• None

Desktop of the Month

This wallpaper has just made it onto my 8400 - it's another picture from the Ogwen Valley in North Wales taken last year.

Carneddau, Snowdonia © John Dexter. All rights reserved

The view, taken from Bwlch Cyfryw-drum on the Carneddau, is to the south west looking toward Carnedd Dafydd. It was taken in March on a beautiful day with stunning cloud inversions all day. As I look out of my window on the Ceiriog Valley, today is another such day.

How I miss the mountains.

Sources & References:

• Wikipedia

Attaching Network Files to Thunderbird Email

A little problem that has vexed me for a while is attaching files from my file server to emails drafted on my desktop (or any other client device, for that matter). Even when I'd opened the network location in Nautilus, I couldn't see the shortcut in the Attach Files dialog in Thunderbird. It wasn't a huge issue, just one of those little niggles that got put on my to-do list a while back.

Actually, attaching network files to emails turns out to be an easy thing to achieve if you look for the files in the right place! Unlike permanent mounted directories (those that mount at boot), ad hoc navigation of network folders mounts the location in a virtual file system: to be specific, in Nautilus, it mounts the directory in the Gnome Virtual File System. So, assuming that you have mounted the directory in Nautilus, all you need to do is navigate to the home/[username]/.gvfs directory from Thunderbird's Attach File dialog and you should find your files right where you left them!

Sources & References:

• Wikipedia: GVFS
• bugzilla: Bug 378425 - Cannot attach files from smb://

News from the Front

My DELL Inspiron 1501 has gone to a new home. I confess that in some ways I'm sorry to see it go: in others, I'm thrilled that, once again, it's become a productive and useful tool.

The astonishing thing is that this machine is operating Ubuntu 12.1 and runs like a trooper! I hope that my friend Tom gets as much pleasure from it as I once did and my daughter before me.

Sources & References:

• Karmic Odyssey - Christmas: a time for surprises

Changing Your Email Client in LibreOffice to Thunderbird

For some reason that I can't fathom, the default email client in LibreOffice is something called sensible-ooomua. When you try to browse for a different client, you get the following error message:

LibreOffice E-mail Client Error Message

There's an easy fix! In LibreOffice:

• Click on Tools in the main menu.
• Click Options... in the drop-down menu.
• In the left-hand pane, expand the Internet option.
• Select the E-mail option.
• Delete the text string sensible-ooomua from the E-mail program text box.
  Either:
  
• Type thunderbird (or the name of your preferred client) in the text box (yep, it is that simple).
  Or
  
• More properly, type usr/bin/thunderbird in the text box.
  Or
  
• Use the browse button (to the right of the text box) and browse to usr/bin/thunderbird and then click Open.

Next time that you want to send an email from LibreOffice, this should open Thunderbird (or your chosen email client) and start a new message.

Sources & References:

• Launchpad Bug Report: Bug #841184

Desktop of the Month

This has just made it onto my 8400

The scene is of Castell Y Gwynt (Castle of Winds) on Glyder Fach looking toward Glyder Fawr. The picture (taken by yours truly) was snapped earlier in the week and shows how staggeringly beautiful the Glyders are in full winter conditions.

Castell Y Gwynt in Winter © John Dexter (all rights reserved)

Sources & References:

• None