New Home For This Blog

I've migrated this blog to finster.co.uk so there will be no more updates here.

Hopefully I'll post a bit more regularly on random tech stuff.

Ubuntu Wallpapers

To install some nice wallpapers on Ubuntu, run the following command: -

sudo apt-get install peace-wallpapers tropic-wallpapers ubuntustudio-wallpapers blubuntu-wallpapers

Useful Plugins for Gimp

Gimp is the image editing tool for Linux. To install additional plugins such as drop shadow etc, the easiest way is to install gimp-plugin-registry.

This can be done using the Ubuntu packages: -

sudo apt-get install gimp-plugin-registry

Backup of all MySQL databases

To backup all MySQL databases on a machine, use the following command: -

mysqldump -u root -psecret --all-databases > backup.sql

To restore all databases, use the following command: -

mysql -u root -psecret < backup.sql


To restore a single database (from a cpanel backup etc), use the following command: -

mysql -u user -psecret dbname < dbbackup.sql

Starting a VM from the Command Line

Starting a VM from the Command Line (or via a shortcut on the desktop) is easy - just use the command: -

VBoxManage startvm name_of_virtual_machine

for example : -

VBoxManage startvm "Windows XP"

USB in VirtualBox

Here are the steps required to get USB working on a Linux host (tested with VirtualBox 2.1.4)

1. Create a group usbusers and put yourself in it.

sudo addgroup usbusers
usermod -a -G usbusers andy

2. Note down the vendor and id numbers for the USB devices that you want to enable after running the following command: -

VBoxManage list usbhost

3. In VirtuaBox's USB section add both of these devices, making sure you have the vendor and id numbers correct.

4. Add the following lines in /etc/fstab (you can get the ID of the usbusers group by looking in /etc/group) : -

# usbusers is the USB group (id 1001)
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1001,devmode=664 0 0

5. A reboot is required.

Combining PDF Files

Combining PDF files in Linux is ridiculously easy - its just a matter of installing the PDF Toolkit package (pdftk) and then running the following command: -

pdftk file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf cat output newfile.pdf