Check your Ubuntu ISO for defects

ISO images are a great way to pack large amounts of data into one single file. This is useful for avid Linux users, distro hoppers, or just any tech enthusiast out there due to ease of use and portability. To learn more about ISO images, Wikipedia’s your friend.

With all these advantages, it is no wonder that ISOs are used quite often to distribute software. Coincidentally, that also includes our good ol’ popular Linux distributions such as OpenSuse, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, etc. (Please, I don’t need to hear about your fav distro).

Since these ISOs are large, have you ever wondered if there is a way to check to see if your downloaded ISOs are defective or not? I sure have. Fortunately, Ubuntu utilizes this thing called MD5 to ensure data integrity and authenticity and it is a breeze to check. Here’s how:

cd Desktop/ (assuming your ISO is located there).

md5sum ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso

Assuming the Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop ISO was checked, then it should return:

24ea1163ea6c9f5dae77de8c49ee7c03  ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso

MD5 result. I passed!

My ISO passed. Yay! You know how I know? Here’s how.

Windows Users

MD5Sum is not supported in Windows, but there is a little free tool you can download here to do the same thing above.

Alright, I’m sure you are now curious to go and check your own downloaded ISOs. Go ahead, it’s perfectly okay.

Fedora 10 Preview Release is robust and pretty.

The Fedora Project finally released the last tester version of Fedora 10 before we get to see the real thing. If it is any good indication, which is usually the case, then we are going to have our hands on a very robust and solid release.

The Desktop

This new release still sports the simple and beautiful Nodoka theme. The new artwork theme is called Solar and it is amazingly pleasant and beautiful. Little things like this make all the difference. I have always been throughly impressed with how polished Fedora looks and feels, and it’s no different this time.

Fedora 10 also offers some nice features include:

• Linux kernel version 2.6.27
• The new Plymouth graphical boot system
• Better webcam support
• GIMP 2.6.2
• GNOME 2.24
• Better PulseAudio support

Plymouth

A new version of GIMP

Overall, Fedora 10 Preview Release indicates the final release will be strong and robust with a good mix of visual appeal and a solid playground for us tinkerers.

Check it out at http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease

2008-11-04    Fedora 10 Preview Release
2008-11-25    Fedora 10 final release

Still Alive

I’m still alive. Woot!

I admit to being fairly lazy when there is nothing to write, but now Distro World is back and hopefully going strong. So remember to check back because I will post a few articles within the next few days. But hey, a lot has happened the past few months, so let’s see:

Yes, he did.

Indeed. Like it or not, America finally gets an African American president.

Font smoothing for Ubuntu. Drool!

This topic has been done for a number of times around the net already, but the code posted usually does not work for the simple reason of wrong formatting. Here is the correctly formatted code, so prepare to drool because you will:

sudo gedit ~/.fonts.conf

Copy and paste the code below:

<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM “fonts.dtd”>
<fontconfig>
<match target=”font”>
<edit name=”autohint” mode=”assign”>
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

Save, exit, log out and log in again.

Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 Alpha 6

You know, I never thought I would say this but now I will tell you, “It’s almost Ubuntu time!” I know, I know. You have to forgive me for the excitement because I am patiently waiting for the newest version of Ubuntu to be released.

It’s not far-fetched to say that the development team of this Linux distribution has been working to release the best version of Ubuntu yet.

But you might say, “Well, says who?” Well, says the Ubuntu Wiki of course! Let’s summarize some notable features that will be made available:

– Xorg: more auto-configuration, less time in xorg.conf.
– Linux kernel 2.6.24: better general processor support and power saving for 64-bit machines. Sounds good.
– Vinagre: a decent VNC client with tab support for multiple sessions. Oh yeah!

– Transmission: the replacement for Gnome torrent downloader.
– GVFS: replacing the old filesystem manager with a more potent solution, making it easier to perform tasks in Nautilus than before.
– Wubi: filling in the gap between Live CD and installed Ubuntu. Now it’s possible to install Ubuntu right in Windows. It’s the same as installing Ubuntu normally, but the difference is that there’s no need for a dedicated partition as Ubuntu would be installed as a writable image.

That is only few of the larger list of features to be integrated into the next release, which is coming April 24, 2008. I can’t wait.