Script to Login to a remote machine with a given password

#!/bin/bash
HOST="localhost"
USER="myuname"
PASS="mypassword"

VAR=$(expect -c "
spawn ssh $USER@$HOST
expect \"password:\"
send \"$PASS\r\"
expect \"\\\\$\"
send \"ls\r\"
expect -re \"$USER.*\"
send \"logout\"
")

echo "==============="
echo "$VAR"

ref : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=192929

How to fix intel video card freezing problem in Ubuntu 10.04

If you have an intel video card of i845, i855 and other 8xx chips, most likely you're going to face a freezing problem when booting your computer as mentioned on here.

This issue was known by ubuntu team and they provided a few solutions for it, but the instructions are not quite easy to understand for new Linux users.

In order to apply any of those changes, you need to boot your computer using a Linux live CD, preferably not that of Ubuntu 10.04. Once your computer is booted, you need to find out which partition holds your system files by issuing the following command:

sudo fdisk -l

After locating the partition that keeps your linux file systems, you need to mound it somewhere. In my case /dev/sda1 was the name of partition which held all the system files. So I ran the following command to mount that partition to /mnt directory:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Now you need to change your root directory using the following command:

chroot /mnt

You should be all set to follow the instruction on ubuntu's website now

Downgrading GRUB [ Ubuntu 10.04 ]

Open a terminal:

Make backup copies of the main GRUB 2 folders & files. (Optional)

sudo cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.old
sudo cp -R /etc/grub.d /etc/grub.d.old
sudo cp -R /boot/grub /boot/grub.old

Remove GRUB 2

sudo apt-get purge grub2 grub-pc


The system will be unbootable until another bootloader is installed.
Once the packages are removed, many files will still remain in ‘/boot/grub’

Install GRUB 0.97

sudo apt-get install grub

With grub installed, the user must still create the menu.lst and stage1/stage2 files by running the following two commands.

sudo update-grub


Generates menu.lst ; Tab to “Yes” when prompted.

sudo grub-install /dev/sdX


Choose the correct device (sda, sdb, etc), normally the one on which Ubuntu is installed.

Creates the stage1 & stage2 files in /boot/grub and writes to the MBR.

Run this command to keep it from upgrading automatically:

echo "grub hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

Reboot


ref: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1298932

Easter eggs in Firefox !!

Visit these addresses in Firefox 3:

about:mozilla

about:robots

Also some other interesting things to find:

about:config

about:cache

about:credits

about:license

about:buildconfig

finaly try this too in your firefox's address bar

chrome://browser/content/browser.xul

How to change Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) 's Plymouth ( boot splash ) theme

You need to first go to synaptic and search for 'plymouth', and then add more themes. or do


sudo apt-get install plymouth-theme-*


after that execute in terminal


sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth




select the desired theme !!

Expected features in Fedora 13 Goddard

boot.fedoraproject.org

boot.fedoraproject.org (BFO) is one of the unique features in Fedora. This effort by Fedora community hopes to completely remove DVD installations in long term. It allows users to download a single, tiny image and install current and future versions of Fedora without having to download additional images.
This method is similar to Pxeboot, can also be considered as a Fedora branded version ofboot.kernel.org.

System Rollback feature with Btrfs

Btrfs lets you take light weight snapshots of the filesystem which can be mounted or booted into selectively. This means, before doing something crazy with your system, you can easily take a snapshot of the partition and in case something bad happens, just boot into the older snapshot.

Design Suite Spin, to make Fedora look even better

This suite will contain all the required applications targeted at designers. Here is a list of the applicationsthat are going to be included.
The Fedora Design Suite includes well-selected applications, fitting a variety of use cases. Whether you decide to work on publishing documents, creating images and pictures or even 3D content, the Design Suite has a fitting tool.

Network Manager finally has a Command Line

I have always been a command line fan but when it comes to managing multiple network connections(including wireless), I always ended up using Network Manager, wondering if they will ever add a command line support

Zarafa, a complete Open Source groupware suite is now available in Goddard

Zarafa is an open source groupware suite that can be used as a drop-in Exchange replacement for Web-based mail, calendaring, collaboration and tasks. Features include IMAP/POP and iCal/CalDAV capabilities, native mobile phone support, the ability to integrate with existing Linux mail servers, a full set of programming interfaces, and a comfortable look and feel using modern Ajax technologies.

KVM Stable PCI Address

The allow devices in KVM guest virtual machines to retain the same PCI address allocations as other devices are added or removed from the guest configuration. It allows the devices to be added or removed from the guest configuration. The feature would remove a significant issue with Fedora's virtualization support for Windows.


3D Support for Nvidia Systems

In addition to the experimental 3D support for certain ATI chipsets introduced in Fedora 12 the mesa-dri-drivers-experimental package now includes 3D support for Nvidia systems via the free and open source Nouveau driver and your early testing and feedback is appreciated.

Improved Software management

Performance of RPM has improved considerably with the integration of RPM 4.8 Beta 1 which is included in this release. A number of other enhancements included ordered erasures, smarter dependency loop handling, revamped Python bindings including compatibility with Python 3.x and a large number of bug fixes.

Enhanced Init System

Upstart has been updated to 0.6 which provides a incremental step towards moving to native Upstart scripts in a subsequent release of Fedora.

Installer Changes

The Anaconda installation program’s user interface has been upgraded, with a simpler workflow for desktop and laptop users, enhanced options for advanced storage usage, and more understandable dialogs. Of course it still retains the powerful kickstart capability for automating the installation process.
The default size of partitions has been readapted to modern hardware. The /boot partition now defaults to a size of 500 MB during a fresh installation, to aid in later use of PreUpgrade and the dracut utility.
On systems with more than 50 GB of free space, the /home partition is now created separately during a fresh installation. A separate /home partition makes it easier to perform some backup, upgrade, encryption, and re-installation procedures.


Firefox 3.6 Web Browser

Firefox 3.6.1 is included in this release. In Firefox 3.6 Personas are built in. HTML 5 video can now be displayed in full screen, support for the WOFF dont format is added, and better Javascript support which includes better speed and improved overall browser responsiveness.

Better Webcam Support

Fedora 13 now includes out of the box webcam support for a lot of so called dual-mode cameras. These are cheap still cameras (which usually hold only on board storage, no memory card slot), which can can also function as a webcam

How to Install Nvidia Video Drivers In 10.04 Lucid Lynx

1. Open your favorite terminal (ie. Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and uninstall any and all nvidia components installed.

$ sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

2. Next we need to blacklist “nouveau”. Do so by adding the following into /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf with your favorite text editor.

$ sudo blacklist nouvea

3. Install the latest official stable driver from the repository

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

4. Next we’ll load the Nvidia kernel module

$ sudo modprobe nvidia

5. Verify it’s successful entry via lsmod like so

$ sudo lsmod | grep -i nvidia

6. And one last step, we must create the Nvidia configuration file.

$ sudo nvidia-xconfig