Access shared host folders in a VirtualBox Ubuntu guest

• Install VirtualBox Guest Additions.
• Set up a shared host folder using VirtualBox.

Make sure Auto-Mount is off otherwise when mounting the shared folder after restarting the guest next time, we'll get this error:-

mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Invalid argument.

It seems it's caused by the shared folder has already been mounted to "/media/sf_mydata" which only allows "admin" to access.

• In the Ubuntu guest, use Terminal to run the following commands:-

sudo mkdir /mnt/mydata
sudo mount -t vboxsf mydata /mnt/mydata
ln -s /mnt/mydata $HOME/Desktop/mydata

• To auto-mount the shared folder,

gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

Then add the following line:-

mydata /mnt/mydata vboxsf defaults 0 0

Missing Main Menu Bar in Eclipse based Applications

Some Ecipse based applications like XMind (Mind Mapping and Brainstorming program) show the menu neither in the main program window nor in the new global main menu panel introduced in Ubuntu 11.04. The workaround for now is to set the APPMENU_DISPLAY_BOTH to 1 like this:-

APPMENU_DISPLAY_BOTH=1 /usr/local/xmind/xmind

This allows the menu to display within the application like it did in the earlier version of Ubuntu.

Refs:
http://groups.google.com/group/xmind/browse_thread/thread/bd2badc7f785c254?pli=1
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/eclipse/+bug/688136

Useful App Indicators

System Load Indicator
Display graphs for CPU, RAM, network traffic, harddisk and swp space use.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:indicator-multiload/stable-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

Weather Indicator

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:weather-indicator-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-weather

Caffeine
Keep Ubuntu awake by disabling screensaver.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:caffeine-developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install caffeine

Lookit
Capture an area or the entire screen.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lookit/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lookit

Tomate
Inspired by the Pomodoro technique. You commit to working without interruption for at least 10 minutes which is usually the hardest part. After that, it becomes easier to continue working.

• Download from http://gitorious.org/tomate/natim-tomate/archive-tarball/master
• Extract the downloaded "natim-natim-tomate-master.tar.gz" file
• Follow the instructions in README.txt

Free Antivirus Software for Linux

Clam AntiVirus

• Install command-line interface

sudo apt-get install clamav

• Install virus database update utility

sudo apt-get install clamav-freshclam

• Install Nautilus extension for easy scan (it adds "Scan for Viruses" to the right-click menu)

sudo apt-get install nautilus-clamscan

AVGScan

• Download the installation file (.deb) from http://free.avg.com/au-en/download.prd-alf
• When running it, this message "The package is of bad quality" will appear. Just select "Ignore and install".
• The AVG service should start automatically at boot time. To start the service manually now, run

sudo service avgd start

• To integrate the AVGScan with Nautilus, create a script file (text file) in "~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts" and allow it to be executable. Add the commands below in the script file:-

#!/bin/bash
xterm -hold -T "AVG Virus Scanning $*" -e "avgscan --heur --arc $*"

Refs
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1209061

Update Dropbox for Ubuntu 11.04

• Download Dropbox v1.1.31 (Linux x86, Linux x86_64)
• Delete ".dropbox-dist" from the home directory
• Extract the downloaded Dropbox to the home directory (the extracted folder will be ".dropbox-dist")
• Stop the currently running Dropbox if the old version Dropbox exists by running

killall dropbox

or

dropbox stop

• Start Dropbox by running

dropbox start

Ref:
http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=37361 

Running Oracle SQL Developer 3.0 on Ubuntu

This free graphical tool from Oracle looks very powerful for database development and seems to be equivalent to Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. Its feature list is quite impressive. This version (v3.0.04.34, March 2011) incorporates Data Modeler and Query Builder support. It can also make a read-only connection to non-Oracle databases (MySQL, SQL Server, MS Access, Sybase, DB2 UDB and Teradata).

• Download "SQL Developer for other platforms" from Oracle and unzip it.
• Create a new directory called ".sqldeveloper" in the home directory.
• Create a new text file called "jdk" in ".sqldeveloper" and add a JDK (Java Development Kit) installation path to the file; for example,

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun

• Allow the uncompressed "sqldeveloper.sh" to be executed as program.
• Run "sqldeveloper.sh".

Lost Evolution emails after upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

The new version of Evolution Email (v2.32) that comes with Ubuntu 11.04 now uses "~/.local/share/evolution" as the new storage location. The Ubuntu upgrade process doesn't transfer the existing data to the new location automatically. To manually fix this,

• Rename the newly created "evolution" folder in "~/.local/share" to something else first, just in case.
• Move the ".evolution" folder from the home directory to "~/.local/share" and rename it to "evolution".

For Evolution data stored in a non-default location (e.g. /mydata/EvolutionMail), just create a new symbolic link like this (after renaming the newly created "evolution" to something else first):-

ln -s /mydata/EvolutionMail ~/.local/share/evolution