Sushi Huh? a screenshot

What does Sushi Huh do for you?

Users have varying needs and there are times when you can’t find the applications you need by default. And some times you have little or maybe even no access to internet either. What Sushi Huh? does is that it allows you to download the packages you need when you have the chance to do so. That’s why it is a script which you could put in your USB drive or laptop and that’s it. The nice thing is that it allows you to download packages for the following distros:

• Debian
• Ubuntu
• OpenSUSE
• Fedora
• Mandriva

Sushi Huh? will launch a web browser for you to configure where you will download your packages. It will also let you search for them and select them for downloading. Which is something like having Synaptic in your browser. Interestingly enough it will ask you which release of the distro you are using before you could start using it.

It took quite a while for my Inkscape install to be finished but that’s ok. Well at least it was there. And this means that when my internet connection at home is intermittent, at least I still have a way to download packages when I am out and using wifi elsewhere and just install them when I get home. This is pretty nifty stuff! Why don’t you try Sushi Huh? and see for yourself. : )

Post from: New Linux User

Tux, the mascot (heart brushes from free-brushes.com)

• Search for a new application to try.
  For me, this never gets old. I love looking for new applications to try, just because I can. Most Linux distributions have package managers that help users search for particular applications and install them. There are also times when friends ask me for certain types of applications so I get curious if I’ve never heard of them. I look for articles and blog entries about them, then I search for the package if ever it’s in the repository. If it is, it’s my lucky day because I could easily install it. At least I have an idea of other tools I could use. If the application turns out to be something not really useful for me, I could just uninstall it and file the additional information as something I might be able to pass on to someone else.
• Tweak your desktop settings.
  
  Seriously, this could eat up so much time. If you want a certain behavior to happen in your desktop environment or window manager, sometimes you have to do a lot of tweaking. Even just changing the background image could take forever, especially if you have so much artwork to choose from. And if you want a certain theme, you might have to customize everything. Another factor is that you could actually tweak so many things like default applications, applet configurations, etc. I could take a half a day doing this when the mood strikes me.
• Check out Easter eggs in various applications.
  When you search for Easter eggs on the internet, you’d get all sorts of things. It could be something that you see on the command line or a particular application. Could it be the code for Contra? Or is it something else entirely? Whatever it is, I am sure it will make you smile or chuckle. Sometimes I just laugh out loud because of how funny some of them could be.

These suggestions may or may not appeal to you. But if they do, at least you’ve got something to do. ; )

Post from: New Linux User

How to install *.deb, *.rpm and Source Code Files

*.deb files and *rpm files are commonly available to us users when we search for installers of applications on the internet. If you have never encountered these files before it’s best to know which ones are applicable for the Linux distribution. Both packages apply to different distributions. There are different methods you could use to install them on the respective distros where they apply. On the other hand, source code files are applicable to any system.

When learning about installing applications, it’s best if you’re familiar with using repositories. Repositories contain the packages of the application/s you might need. Repositories could be added to your package manager as needed.

How to Install an RPM Package on a Debian Box

There are times when you cannot see a specific package you are looking for in the repositories for the distribution you are using. There are times I personally see rpm files of applications I want to use but no *deb packages. What does when do when this happens? Install the rpm package! Alien will do the trick.

HOWTO: Use dpkg to Install .deb Files

If you have downloaded deb files of the application you want, you could install them using the dpkg command. This will solve your dilemma of what to do with the file. However, dpkg actually has other uses. You could simply unpack the package, show the options available and you could also remove the application via the dpkg command.

Being a new Linux user might not appear to be easy but if you give it time you will see for yourself that it’s not as bad you might think it could be. You need time to familiarize yourself with Linux as well as the whole free and open source community as a whole. And if ever you find it difficult to do any of those and yet you already need something done, you could look all over the internet there are many ways to work on Linux, as well as open source projects too, so you don’t feel too burdened at the end of the day.

Post from: New Linux User

Things to remember:

• APT repositories have packages that have information about the packages and the repositories. This is in the packages.gz file.
• Remember to be consistent in which is machine1 and which is machine2 because if you get confused you’d have a hard time following the instructions in the guide.
• Make sure you make a backup of your sources.list file — you could probably make a copy first before you begin the process.
• Don’t panic.
• Always have someone to guide you through it if you’re too nervous about what you’re thinking of doing.

You’d be doing a lot of copying of information back and forth the two machines you have so it’s best to be attentive and alert. Basically you will be generating a download script to fetch the packages you need and their dependencies. Afterwards you need to copy the files you were able to fetch to the machine where you want them installed. I suppose that in case you decided to ask your neighbor to let you use his/her computer to do this, you might have to discuss something about Linux so you might as well prepare yourself for some questions of a curious person who might decide to check out Linux too.

Thanks goes out to the wonderful people on planetoss.com for making that tutorial for us.

Post from: New Linux User