Sunday, 26 May 2019

How to install Manjaro Linux in VirtualBox

Manjaro is a Arch-based Linux distribution featuring speed, power and efficiency of Arch Linux minus the effort and technical expertise to set things up by yourself. 

Arch Linux comes with a minimal installation where you go on and set up everything by yourself such as desktop environments, applications, codecs etc. Manjaro promises to reduce this pain (is it?) by providing a distro that has all these required pieces along with the benefits of Arch Linux. 

In this article, we will see some of the features which Manjaro has to offer and the steps to install Manjaro Linux in a VirtualBox. 

System Requirements 

The recommended system requirements include
  • 1 GB RAM
  • 30 GB of storage
  • 1GHz processor
  • HD graphics card 

Features of Manjaro Linux

  • Unlike Arch Linux, it provides a easy, user friendly installation process. 
  • Installation of necessary software like drivers, media codecs, desktop environments is default.
  • Speed, power and efficiency.
  • Rolling release model to keep your system always up to date.
  • Access to Arch User Repository. 

Download Manjaro Linux

Manjaro has four different flavors, out of which the Architect edition comes without a desktop environment. The other three flavors are Xfce, KDE and GNOME. 

You can grab a Manjaro ISO from the official download page. 


I have downloaded the KDE edition for installing Manjaro in VirtualBox. 

Setting up Virtual Box

Before you start the installation process, you will have to set up a Virtual Machine which includes assigning RAM, storage, creating a virtual drive etc. This may help:


Once you have downloaded the ISO file and set up VirtualBox for Linux, start the Virtual Machine. You will see a welcome screen.


Select the option Boot : Manjaro.x86_64 kde to boot to Manjaro Live session. 


You can see an option to Launch Installer under INSTALLATION option. Click on it to begin the installation procedure. 

The installation process consists of various settings that are helpful. The first screen is a Welcome screen displaying the Manjaro Linux version. Click on Next to proceed with the settings before installation. 


Under the Location tab, select your Region and Zone and click on Next. Chances are that it will automatically detect your location. 


In the next screen, select your keyboard layout. The default for Indian was Hindi, so I had to change it to English (India, with rupee).


In the next screen - Partitions, it will ask for the partitioning. Since you are installing it in a VirtualBox with a new VirtualBox hard drive, selecting Erase disk wont create any problem. It will assign a default swap partition for your system. Click on Next to continue. 


Next screen asks you for the user details. Create a new user, assign a password to it and also for the root user and click on Next. I will prefer not to have the same password for root and the user in case I run something as an elevated root process which I shouldn't. 


The next screen Summary displays all your settings. Click on Next to proceed to Install options and continue. 


Installation of Manjaro Linux will take some. Wait for it to finish and then reboot. 

Once you reboot, you will see the Manjaro Linux homescreen, congratulations! Enjoy the powerful Manjaro without the hassle of configuring and setting things up manually which you do in a Arch Linux installation. 


Let us know in the comments if you face any difficulty in installing Manjaro Linux in a VirtualBox. 

How to add a minimize button in Elementary OS

New to Elementary OS? Are you missing the minimize button? 

If you are a new Elementary OS user, you must have noticed there is no minimize button for any application. Some of us has this habit of switching between apps by minimizing the one which is not needed and Elementary OS makes it a pain. Sometimes, you just want an application to run in background by minimizing it e.g. Music Player, downloads etc. However there's a way to add a minimize button in Elementary OS.

In this article we will see how to add a minimize button in Elementary OS.

Before you can enable the minimize button, you will have to install Elementary Tweak. 


Once done, open System Settings > Tweaks.

In the left sidebar under Appearance Tab, you will see an option - Button Layout. Select Minimize Left / Right to put a minimize button either on the left side of a window or the right one, whichever you prefer. If you are switching from Windows, most probably you will prefer it in the right side. An Ubuntu user will prefer it on the left for obvious reason. 



You can select OS X to put a minimize, maximize and close button imitating a OS X desktop. Here's how an application looks like with a Minimize button in Elementary OS.


On the left side, you can see options to close the window, maximize it or minimize it. When you right click the title bar, you can find the same options. 

Final Words

Sometimes the absence of a minimize button in elementary OS is frustrating for me. I am not sure why the eOS developers left it on purpose. Being an elementary OS user, what do you think about it, have you got used to it or uses the above mentioned Tweak tool to get one for yourself? Tell us in the comments. 

Things to do after installing Elementary OS

Elementary OS is a Ubuntu-based distribution which is quite popular because of its simplicity and low system requirements. It's polished and provides a nice UI experience along with the power of Linux. 



In this article, we list out some of the things to do after installing Elementary OS. 

Update your system


No matter which operating system you install, the first thing will always be to update your system. There are various critical bug fixes and security updates released which are not in the ISO from which you installed and updating your system makes sure you are using the latest of Elementary OS without missing those fixes. 

To update your system, click on Application Bar and launch Software. Under the tab Updates, you will see if there is an update available for your OS and the applications which are installed. Click on Install to install these updates.



You can update your system the terminal way. Open a terminal and copy paste the below command :

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras


Ubuntu restricted extras contains some of the important third party softwares that are not shipped by default with the Elementary OS. Elementary OS is a Ubuntu-based distribution and though it comes with all the necessary packages, installing Ubuntu restricted extras make sure you do not have to install various third party packages one by one. 

To install Ubuntu restricted extras, open terminal and type the below command:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Add third party repository 


Elementary OS has its own AppStore which has a good software collection. However, sometimes you may need a software which is not available by default and you either need to install it from a PPA or some other repository. 

Elementary OS gives you an option to enable these third party repository in case you want to use them. It's not enabled by default though. 

To enable third party repository, open Software > Edit > Software Sources. Under the Other Software tab, you will find options to enable software installation packaged by Canonical for their partners and independent applications.

Install gdebi


gdebi is a great tool install .deb file. Most of the applications provide a .deb package which can be installed by the command line. gdebi provides an equivalent to dpkg with a UI and installing a debian package is as simple as launching it.

To install gdebi package, open terminal and copy paste below command:

sudo apt-get install gdebi

Install Power management software


TLP is an advances power management tool for Linux which comes with a default configuration optimized for a better battery life. TLP can reduce the power consumption and reduce overheating of your system while running Elementary OS. It is highly unlikely though that you will face a overheating problem, but you will always want your laptop to go for some more minutes without the need to recharge.

To install TLP, open terminal and type the below command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw

Once installed, just run the service and forget about it.

sudo tlp start

Install Elementary Tweaks (and enable a minimize button)


Elementary Tweak is an application that lets you edit your OS's appearance that are by default not accessible. Features like theme settings, font change, animations etc makes it a must-have software. 

Also, you might have noticed there is no minimize button in Elementary OS. You can use Elementary Tweak to enable minimize button in Elementary OS. 


Install some daily use application


If you are switching to Elementary OS for the first time, you may notice some of your daily use applications are not installed by default. You might want to get a web browser (default one sucks), a media player, an office suite at least. 

To install these open Terminal and type the below command:

sudo apt-get install vlc libreoffice skype 


Depending upon your preferences, you might want to install some more softwares. 

Final Words


It's always good to keep your system updated. The above article for things to do after installing Elementary OS is going to help someone who is new to eOS and / or shifting from MS Windows. Let us know in the comments if we missed something and I will add it to the above list. 

Task managers for Elementary OS

A Task Manager is a system monitor utility which can track details about a process, and other system variables like RAM usage, disk usage etc. There are various task managers available for a Linux system, and in this article we are looking into my personal favourite top 3 task managers for Elementary OS. I know many of the Linux users just prefer the command line way, head to the end if you want the command line way to manage tasks in Elementary OS.

GNOME system monitor

GNOME System Monitor is a great tool to find out which processes are running and how much time, memory and space is being used. 

How to install Gnome system monitor

Open terminal and type the below command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-system-monitor

Once the installation completes, you can launch it from the Application Menu.  The processes tab lists out all the processes that are running with the user and the memory being used by that process. To kill a process, you can right click and kill it, however keep in mind this may lead to data loss and should only be used to kill the hung processes.


The resources tab displays a graphical consumption of your CPU, Memory and Swap usage along with the Network history. 



Mate System Monitor


Mate System Monitor is another system monitor tool which you can install in your Elementary OS. It allows you to view and control processes which are running on your system. You can view the memory map, kill a process and much more. The information displayed includes Device, Disk Usage, mountpoints, memory usage and process information. 

How to install Mate System Monitor

Mate System Monitor is available in AppCenter of Elementary OS. You can search and install it. If you would like to install it from the command line, open Terminal and type the below command:

sudo apt-get install mate-system-monitor


There are 4 tabs in Mate System Monitor. System displays the OS, RAM, processor and available disk space.

The Processes tab lists out all the processes currently running along with their status and the memory they are taking up. You can send a Terminate signal and kill a process from here. 


Resources option displays the CPU usage, Memory and Swap Usage and Network History in a graphical way. 


Both GNOME and Mate System monitors looks and works similar. 

Terminal Way : Top


The next task manager for Elementary OS is a terminal command top. Top command lists out the processes which are running and in which state along with their CPU usage share. In the below screenshot, you can see a total of 169 tasks running  out of which 168 are in sleep state. There is RAM data and the processes with their PID.


If you want to kill any process, you can use the PID from the first column and type the below command in terminal.

kill -9 <PID>

However, you should be very careful and know what you are doing while killing a process. By killing a wrong process, you can loose some important data and/or make your system unstable. 

Final Words


Which way you prefer to monitor your Elementary OS system? Is the graphical way or you are completely used to the terminal way, tell us in the comments.

sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found fix in Elementary OS

software-properties-common is a pachange that manages the repositories you install software from. It provides an abstraction of the used apt repository and to manage third party software sources along with distribution. So, its like the package contains the common files needed to install a software. 

However, something strange happened to me, for the very first time. I had installed a fresh copy of Elementary OS in a VirtualBox and was trying to install Elementary Tweaks, but when I tried adding it to the repository with command.

sudo add-apt-repository <whatever>

I got an error saying

sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found

So, I had to install package software-properties-common to make add-apt-repository to work. If you want to fix add-apt-repository: command not found in Elementary OS, open terminal and type in the below command :

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

Once the installation completes, you will be able to add a repository and then you can install it.

Now, I have never faced this problem with Ubuntu, Mint or Debian (Okay, yeah! I am more of a Debian guy). It was kinda strange to find it in first place for Elementary OS. I am not sure about the exact reason but it seems the developers do not want you to add you a third party source software and instead to use their AppCenter. 

What do you guess the reason behind it? Or is it just me who faced this error - I tried with two different downloads just to make sure I didn't install a minimal copy or something. Let us know in the comments. 

Install Elementary Tweak in Elementary OS

Elementary Tweaks is a great way to customize your Elementary OS. Some options like minimizing a window or changing the setting for opening a file with double click is missing by default and can be changed by Elementary Tweaks.

Elementary Tweak


There are various other settings which it provides and in the article we will  see how to install Elementary Tweaks and then how we can use it to get a better experience.

How to install Elementary Tweaks


To install Elementary Tweaks in Elementary OS, open Terminal and type the below commands. You can find terminal in the Application section if you have not already added it to the dock or open it with Ctrl + Alt + T.

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common 
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:philip.scott/elementary-tweaks 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install elementary-tweaks
This will install Elementary Tweaks in your system.

Once done, you can open the Elementary Tweaks - options by Selecting System Settings in Application, and then clicking on Tweaks under Personal Tab.

Elementary Tweak


Now, lets see what all features are there and how you can use Elementary Tweaks. It provides a number of options to customize the OS.

1. Appearance : In the appearance section, you can choose GTK+ setting, Icons, Cursor and can select a dark variant. Under Windows Controls, you can decide if you want to enable a minimize button and where to place it. Select the options for Layout and you can see a minimize button. You can select either to show GNOME menu.

2. Font : Under the Font option, you can select the default font and size and the same for Document, Monospace, and Titlebar.

3. Animations : Animations tab gives you an option to enable/disable animation and the duration for which you want it to play for several activities like Open, Close, SNap, Minimize and Workspace switch. If you are running low on specification, its always good to disable it. 

4. Miscellaneous : Miscellaneous tab contains the max volume you want to use for your system. 

5. Files : Under Files tab, you can select whether you want to open a file with a single click (which is by default), or with double click. There is option to choose Date format too.

6. Launcher : Under launcher section, there are options to select rows and columns for Launcher and if you want to show category by default.

7. Cerbere : Cerbere gives and option to choose from Wingpanel or Plank.

8. Terminal : In Terminal tab, you can customize various options for your Terminal like the background color, copy paste settings, following last tab and unsafe paste alert.

9. Videos : Videos tab gives you options like to stay on top while playing a video or to stop a video from playing instantly.

Installing Elementary tweaks is the first thing I do if I install a fresh copy of the OS and upgraded / updated it. The fact that it contains a dark theme mode - which is very useful in using my system at night, and an option to have a minimize button is a great thing!

Tip : Steps to install Elementary OS in VirtualBox



Have you used Elementary tweaks? Let us in the comments. Also, if you are facing any issues while installation, let us know.

How to install Firefox in Elementary OS

Firefox is a free and open source web browser developed by Mozilla Foundation. Available for all different operating systems like Windows, Linux, Mac OS and other Mobile OS, Mozilla Firefox was the first browser to challenge the once-dominating Internet Explorer from Microsoft. It even went on to become the most used web browser before the rise of Google Chrome.



Firefox provides all features a web browser can have like tabbed browsing, spell check, search and bookmark options, a download manager, private browsing and much more. It has its own set of plugins that you can use to make your day to day life easier.

Recently, Firefox received a new version : Firefox Quantum, which challenges to be the fastest web browser. Even I downloaded a copy and tried it the very first day it was released and it fulfills what it promises.

If you are a Linux user like me, one thing you would have noticed is that Firefox has always an updated version for Linux at par with other OS. Quantum is available for different Linux distributions and in this article, we will see how to install Firefox in Elementary OS.

The elegance of Elementary OS combined with speed of Firefox is a perfect combination for browsing the web. You don't need anything more except a cup of coffee!

Let us see how to install Firefox in Elementary OS.

Install Firefox in Elementary OS


Its as easy as running a command in Terminal or searching the AppStore and a few clicks.

If you want to do it the graphical way, navigate to AppCenter and search for Firefox.



Click on install and it will download and install Firefox Quantum in your Elementary OS system.

If you want to do it the command line way, open Terminal and type the below command :

sudo apt-get install firefox

That's it! Don't forget to share how Firefox Quantum performs for you. 

How to install Google Chrome in Elementary OS

Elementary OS ships with GNOME Web browser code named Epiphany, a free and open source web browser for the GNOME desktop environment. Epiphany was forked from the Galeon project and provides a simple and clean interface. Epiphany comes with features such as desktop integration of a website, default integration of essentials like Ad Blockers, no useless and wasted space and much more.

However, Epiphany is not a widely used browser and most people are accustomed to Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. In this article we will see how to install Google Chrome in Elementary OS.



First step is to download a 64-bit debian package from Google Chrome website.

Download Google Chrome : https://www.google.com/chrome/

Now, open Terminal and navigate to Download folder. Type the below command to install Google Chrome in Elementary OS.

sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable-current-amd64.deb

This will install Google Chrome in your system. You can launch it from the application menu and even add it to the dock for a quick click and open.

Another way of installing is to use gdebi installer. Installer gdebi installer by typing the below command:

sudo apt install gdebi

Once done, right click on the debian package and choose 'open with gDebi'. Follow the on screen instructions to install Google Chrome in your Elementary OS.

In case, clicking on the Google Chrome icon does nothing, open terminal and try to open it from there:

google-chrome

If you see the below error, you will have to install libNSS.

NSS_VersionCheck("3.26") failed. NSS >= 3.26 is required. Please upgrade to the latest NSS, and if you still get this error, contact your distribution maintainer.

Type the below command to install libnss3, and update your system once completed.


sudo apt-get install libnss3
sudo apt-get update


You can now launch Google Chrome both from the Terminal and Application menu.


Let me know in the comments if you are still facing issues in installing Google Chrome in Elementary OS.

How to install Elementary OS in VirtualBox

Elementary OS is a beautiful and powerful Linux distribution that required low maintenance and can run on even low end hardware. It's lightweight, fast and provides a complete different look with a dock and application menu.

Elementary OS has its own app store named AppCenter that promises to deliver native, open source apps. You can search for new apps and install them, or update an existing one. It ships with a number of daily use application for Music, Epiphany for browsing web, Mail, Photos and Videos, a File manager, Terminal and much more.

You can explore application in grid option or categories or just search the app you are looking for in the search option.

The Desktop consists of two parts, the Panel which consists of Application, clock and indicators. The Dock contains your favorite application and you can add any of them to the Dock by right clicking on an application.

Recommended System Requirements

Elementary OS can run on a very lightweight system. However, for a smooth use, below are the system requirements for Elementary OS: 

  • Intel i3 or equivalent dual-core 64-bit processor
  • 1 GB of RAM
  • 15 GB of storage

Downloads

You can grab a copy of Elementary OS from its download site : https://elementary.io/

The amount listed is a donation thing and you can type 0$ if you want it for free. The latest release as of now is elementary os 0.4.1.

Installation


In this section we will see how to install Elementary OS. I am using a VirtualBox for this tutorial but the article applies for installing elementary OS standalone on a drive or for dual booting with Windows.

Before we can install Elementary OS, you will need to set up Virtual Box.

Once you boot with the ISO downloaded, the OS will load and you see the option to either try out Elementary OS or Install it. Click on Install elementary to proceed with the installation. 


Next Install screen asks your preferences if you want to download the updates while installation and weather to install third party software for graphics and Wi-fi, Flash, MP3 and other media. 

It's better to tick both the options, so that you won't have do it manually later. 


In the next screen "Installation type", select "Erase disk and install elementary" as we have created a new a Virtual Drive. This won't affect our primary drive. 



Selecting it will give a prompt saying the disk will be formatted. Click on Continue.


The next screen asks you to select your location. Click on the place where you are residing and it will pick up the timezone. 


Select your keyboard layout. 

The next step asks you for your primary login credentials set up and your device name. 


Once you fill it out and click on Continue, the installation process begins. It will take some time for downloading and installation of Elementary OS. Grab a popcorn till then ;)


A window will pop-up notifying you the completion of installation.


Restart your system and you will see the login screen. You can login with the user you have created. The other user is a guest user who can login without any password but can't make any changes to the system. It's very effective when someone is in need of using your system but you don't want them to change something.


Once you verify your credentials, you can see a pretty desktop screen with a Dock in middle. 


Enjoy your experience with Elementary OS!

Let us know in the comments if you are facing any issue while installing Elementary OS in VirtualBox. I'd be happy to help you!



How to set up Virtual Box in Linux

There are hundreds of Linux distribution and being a Linux fan, I am always eager to try out something new. Sometimes it's just for a day or two in a virtual box while some other time I end up making it my primary OS. However, it's not always feasible to install a Linux Distribution to test on the primary hard drive or getting hold of a USB and creating a live USB. In that case VirtualBox is the perfect solution.

VirtualBox is powerful virtualization tool with lots of features and high performance. It's a free and open source software licensed under GNU General Public License and is available for Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris. You can run almost all Linux distributions in a VirtualBox without actually installing on your hard drive.

Setting up a virtual box for a new Linux flavor to try out is the first step. It's a repeating step for each of the Linux distribution you are setting up. 

This article explains how to set up VirtualBox for Linux. These steps will remain common no matter what Linux distro you are trying and is the first step after downloading your favorite ISO file. 

If you do not have VirtualBox, grab a copy from the official website : https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads for your host system.

Setting up a VirtualBox for Linux.

Step 1 : Open VirtualBox and click on the New button. Follow the rest of the steps to set it up. 



Step 2 : Enter Name of the Operating System, which Type is it and the version you are using. There are already some default types like Ubuntu, Arch, Debian, Fedora etc. However, if you don't see the OS you are trying to install, select Linux and the 32/64 version option. 




3. Next step is to assign the memory (RAM). I usually select double the RAM suggested in Recommended configurations to make sure I do not face any lagging or slowness. 



4. Create a hard disk partition to be used by your OS. You can create a new virtual hard disk or use an existing one. 



5. Hard disk file type : You can either go for a VirtualBox Disk Image which you can use in any other system, or a Virtual Hard Disk. I usually leave it as the default one - VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image).



6. Specify how you want your hard disk to work. A dynamically allocated hard disk takes up your primary storage space only when needed by the VirtualBox. However, a fixed size hard disk take longer time to create but is faster than the dynamic one. Go for a Fixed size for a more faster read/write access of files. 



7. Location and Size. You can specify the location of the Virtual Drive you just created and the size you want to allocate it. Its always good to allocate a good size since you might end up installing various software and/or updates and end up filling it very soon. Click on Create to finish the process. 



8. Once done, a virtual machine gets created and you can see it in the list. In the below image, you can see the Elementary OS 2 machine which I just created and see all the specifications in the detail sections.




9. The last step is to associate an ISO with the machine your just created. Select the machine and click on Start from the top panel and a window will open. 


It asks to select a virtual disk file or a physical optical drive. Click on the folder option and select the ISO file you just downloaded for the Linux distribution which you are trying. Once done, click on Start and the VirtualBox will boot into the OS. 

Next steps include installing the operating system. You can now switch back to the article where you are reading how to install a Linux distribution in VirtualBox. 

Let us know in the comments if you are facing any issue or need any clarification in any of the steps above and we might help.  
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