TOPIC: SUDO
Enabling DVD playback in Ubuntu 9.04
22nd July 2009
This information is scattered about the web, so I decided to collect something together in one place in case it helps anyone else. Here are two commands that appeared to do the deed for me:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread4
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
The libdvdread piece is what sorts out encrypted disks and needs a two stage installation, hence the second command. For non-encrypted disks, ubuntu-restricted-extras might be all that's needed if my experience is typical. Taking things further, Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club (Region 2 disk) worked when I tried it, too. In the interests of completeness, I tried the command combination on a virgin 9.04 installation with restricted and multiverse repositories enabled. Along the way, I spied a whole raft of helper components being set in place, and things worked like I would have expected with the aforementioned DVD afterwards. As with anything related to computing, your mileage may vary and, for more information, you can have a look here.
Removing files for which you have no write access from the GNOME Wastebasket in Ubuntu 8.04
2nd September 2008
It might be that GNOME contains a small trap awaiting the unwary: moving files for which you have no write permissions to the Wastebasket using Nautilus. This happened to me in Ubuntu 8.04 which meant that I couldn't clear the Wastebasket using the normal means. To resolve the situation, I thought of finding where the Wastebasket in the normal file system, and that isn't as easy as it might be. One place to look is ~/.Trash, but I didn't have that at all because the location in Hardy Heron is ~/.local/share/Trash/Files. Armed with this knowledge, I turned to the command line and performed the required erasure using sudo. It was all over soon enough once I knew where to look.
A quick way to do an update
8th August 2008
Here's a quick way to get the latest updates on your PC using the command line if you are using Ubuntu or Debian:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Of course, you can split these commands up if you prefer to look before you leap. At the very least, it's so much slicker than the GUI route.