Ubuntu mini tips and tricks

This is a list of little pesky tricks I have been using to solve problems: 1. Make a shell-script with relative paths run the same no matter where it is launches from - i.e. change the working directory to the path of the script itself:
# /bin/bash
cd `dirname $0`

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2. Enable CRONTAB log to its own file:
#cd /etc/rsyslog.d/
#sudo touch ./cron.conf
#sudo *editor* ./cron.conf
ADD: "cron.* -/var/log/cron" /var/log/cron being the log-file
#sudo touch /var/log/cron
#service rsyslog restart

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3. Firefox32 can't find "libqtcurve.so":
-download http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/i386/gtk2-engines-qtcurve/download
-extract it using "sudo dpkg -x gtk*tab* ./gtk2" from the directory you downloaded it.
-press f5 to reload the current directory
-open the gtk2 directory we made, go into the lib directory
-f4 to bring up a terminal
-"sudo cp *current-location*/ /usr/lib32/"
-go up one level, go into the share directory
-"sudo cp *current-location*/ /usr/share/"
-restart firefox32, it should work great

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4. Mount a disk on startup
-type "sudo crontab -e"
-add this line: "@reboot mount *device* *mount-point*"
For me this is: "@reboot mount /dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-pdc_dhbhddfagc4 /Data" which mounts my 4th partition, /dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-pdc_dhbhddfagc4 to /Data. Note that your partitions are probably under /dev/sda* or /dev/hda* - use "sudo fdisk -l" to list your disks.

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5. Install microsoft fonts
-type "sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts"
-your done.

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Ubuntu cheatsheet pages

In my research to fix problems, I have often run across one page which does an excellent job of providing a solution to my problem. Often, this page is actually official Ubuntu documentation, but usually I have a hard time finding it. Detailed here is a list of extremely useful URLs and what they are about:

AMD64/FirefoxAndPlugins	extremely useful page showing how to install 32-bit firefox and java on x64 Ubuntu
Fonts	Fonts page includes large .fonts.conf text, for making all those pesky fonts look sharp, clean, and windows-like
CronHowto	Handy reference on setting up CRON tasks.
How to mount disks

Hope this helps someone, and if not, I know I will be going back through this list when I need help.

-Robbie

Runescape HD on (K)Ubuntu

One of the games I play is Runescape. It is a 3d Java MMORPG, and has both software-rendered(SD) and hardware-rendered(HD) versions. One of the problems I have so far had in switching my main computer to Ubuntu is that I couldn't get HD working - SD takes up way too much CPU and is not nearly so nice graphics wise. I would simply get a "Graphics mode not supported" error.
I did some research, and found that the problem is that I was using a 64-bit version of Ubuntu. Runescape only works on 32-bit Java, at least on Ubuntu.

So, what I did is as follows:
1. Installed the KUbuntu 9.10 RC from Here
2. I used the "Hardware drivers" control panel to install a proprietary graphics driver - NVIDIA in my case
3. I then followed the tutorial for installing 32-bit Firefox and plugins here.

I restarted, then opened up a terminal and typed "firefox32 &". Firefox 32bit started, and I was able to run Runescape.

There are two "issues" at this point:
One, you are probably going to want to create a shortcut to "firefox32 &" if you use it a lot.
Two, there is a minor issue involving the GTK libs - Firefox 32 is looking for the 64 bit libs and failing to load them, so the chrome is a bit blocky. I tried one fix, but haven't gotten anything working yet.

Hope this helps someone!