How to look up an IP from a DNS in Ubuntu Linux

This is a small tip which shows you how to know an IP address of a given domain name. The commonly used way is command ping. Let’s have a look to how it works.

ping vntutor.blogspot.com

Output:

PING blogspot.l.google.com (72.14.207.191) 56(84) bytes of data.

I can alternatively use another way to do that by using command host as the following

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Firefox 2.0.0.4 has been released

Security fixes, memory issues, better Vista support and several new languages are new features in Firefox 2.0.0.4 which was released yesterday (May 30, 2007). It is available for downloading and installing.

VMware Workstation 6 has been released

VMware Inc today released version 6 of its industry-leading virtualization product VMware Workstation. VMware Workstation runs under a wide range of Linux and Windows versions and allows installation of an even wider range of guest operating systems within virtual machines. Among many possible applications are letting help desk personnel easily keep different Windows versions at hand, testing new software products under a variety of environments, and analyzing malicious software without the risk that it might damage a physical computer. Version 6 adds full support for Windows Vista both as host and guest along with significant feature enhancements from the previous version.

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Reduce swapping to speed up your Ubuntu Linux

Linux uses hard disk space called swap to write information it needs for accessing various temporary programs when system RAM is busy. Writing to hard drive is slower writing to RAM because the hard drive runs 100 times slower than RAM. Therefore, if your computer has much RAM (1G or more) why don’t you tell your kernel about that because this helps your kernel using swap less and RAM more to speed up your system. Now, I will let you know how to reduce the tendency for the kernel to use the swap file.
Step 1: see what is the current value for setting
sudo cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
(It should give a number 60 here)

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Disable IPv6 to speed up your Ubuntu Linux

Since most of us don’t use IPV6 networks, this setting can slow down communication throughout our network. Turning this networking feature off will speed up your system.

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/aliases

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How to install themes for Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is one of the best browsers on the market. It is designed to display the text of the page as quickly as possible. Probably, you are using Firefox to read this post. Anyways, if you have not yet installed this browser, you can click on button “Get Firefox with Google toolbar” at the left side to setup freely. This post will show you how to install themes for Firefox.
Ubuntu provides Mozilla Firefox themes such as Human, Tango, Industrial to make it look better integrated with default Ubuntu. To install these themes you run this command in your terminal.

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Essential hotkeys for using Firefox

As you know, using hotkeys in Ubuntu saved more time for you. Today, I will share some other useful hotkeys which I often use daily in Firefox browser. If you have not yet install this browser, you can click on button “Get Firefox with Google toolbar” at the left side to setup freely. Hotkeys listed out below may be applied for Firefox running on Windows and Linux. Read more!

How to write to Linux partitions from Windows

So far, I have provided different methods to write to NTFS partition in Ubuntu and to read Linux partitions from Windows. Now is the suitable time to know how to write to Linux partition from Windows.
First of all, I would like to thank Stephan Schreiber who has designed and implemented Ext2 Installable File System software. This freeware application provides Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003 with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes ( both read and write access). This may be useful if you have installed both Windows and Linux as a dual boot environment on your computer. Now, I will show you how to install this driver. Once this driver is installed on Windows, you can easily mount a Linux partition on your computer into Windows and assign a drive letter to it.

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Ubuntu Linux on Dell laptop

As you know, Ubuntu has always been known for its super-easy installation. But to make things even easier, Canonical and Dell have teamed together to deliver Ubuntu 7.04 fully certified, pre-installed and supported on a range of Dell products. And Dell has offered Ubuntu boxes last Thursday. If you have any problem on Dell laptop, Dell community is available to support for you.

Resources:
- Ubuntu and Dell
- Dell website

How to read Linux partitions from Windows

I wrote a post to talk about how to write to NTFS partition in Ubuntu. Now, I’m going to show how to read Linux partitions.
Explore2fs is a GUI explorer tool for accessing ext2 and ext3 filesystems. It runs under all versions of Windows and can read almost any ext2 and ext3 filesystem. Read more