Firefox jre plugin for ubuntu 10.04 stops working

A couple of days ago in my efforts to join a webex session I realized that my firefox java plugin was not working. Then I remembered reading some where that Sun Java is being removed from ubuntu for some xyz reason. Details in the source links at the end.
As always my first level of support is freenode server, ubuntu channel on irc :) There everybody actually laughed at my 10.04 :) since most of the people are after the latest and the greatest. Never the less I finally managed to find a link giving me everthing step by step. So here is what I did to get my java firefox plugin back.

1. sudo apt-get purge sun-java6-bin (Please note it will uninstall all softwares depending on java)
2. Put the line deb http://www.duinsoft.nl/pkg debs all in the file /etc/apt/sources.list
3. import the gpg key with the command (all on one line)
   sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 5CB26B26
4. sudo apt-get update

5. sudo apt-get install update-sun-jre

Everything starts working.
Source:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java
http://www.duinsoft.nl/packages.php?t=en

vpnc auto-connect

For some reason my vpn client (vpnc) in ubuntu keeps getting disconnected. The worst is that I had to connect a couple of times before it would connect. So I wrote this tiny bash script to let it dial until it connects :)

#!/bin/bash
while true ;do
sleep 5
pid=/var/run/vpnc/pid
PID="$(cat "$pid" 2> /dev/null)"
if [ -z "$PID" ]; then
/usr/sbin/vpnc-connect /etc/vpnc/netapp.conf
else
echo connected
break
fi
done

Usb wireless adapter in Ubuntu Linux

I had to buy a usb wireless adapter for my ubuntu based laptop since it does not have a built in one. So I went to the local market here in Khobar (Dossary tower) and made a list of available ones. Here is what I got:

• TPLINK TLWN321G
• ALFA AWUS036H
• PLANET WL-U356M
• EDIMAX
• MSI

I did some research on the Internet regarding which one would work natively/out of the box with ubuntu. TPLINK seemed to be the best bet. It was also the cheapest option available some thing like SR 50. So I took my chance. What a perfect fluke :) Its working like a charm since then. Lucky me!

Here is the lsusb output for the device

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2501USB Wireless Adapter

Voice chat on Linux

This has been a big problem for me since I started using Linux as my primary desktop. For the time being the only thing I could use was "Skype" and "Ekiga". Recently I found jabbin, a jabber client supporting libjingle protocol developed by google. I got to it via this article FreeSoftwareMagazine which shows how to voice chat on Linux with google talk users. Cool!

The software is still under heavy development though. At least there is hope :)

Update (23rd June 2008)
Seems like the above software is "dying" like a lot of open source projects :( The home page has disappeared. Here is another way of voice chatting with Gtalk users on linux

Type urdu in openoffice in ubuntu 6.06

Installing urdu font ( nafeesWebNaskh )

Download this file: http://www.crulp.org/Downloads/NafeesWeb.ttf

In a terminal type:

gksudo nautilus fonts:

A folder would open with a lot of font files in it. Copy and paste the above downloaded file in to this folder. Now type this command:

sudo fc-cache -f -v

Installing Urdu keyboard and keyboard applet
Download the keyboard "ur.txt" from http://www.crulp.org/Downloads/ur.txt
Double click the downloaded file to open it. Select and copy all the text in this file.

Issue this command

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xkb/symbols/pk

This will open a file in gedit. Select and delete all the text in the file. Now paste all the text we copied from ur.txt to this file. Save and close this file.

Now go to System->Preference->Keyboard. Under the layout tab click on add button and chose pakistan from the left column and press Ok.

To easily switch between keyboards please add an applet to your task bar. This can be done by right clicking on task bar and selecting “add to panel”. In the utilities section choose keyboard indicator and press “Add”.

To type in urdu in openoffice. Open openoffice writer and from the fonts choose “nafees web naksh” and from the keyboard indicator choose urdu. Now you can type in urdu in openoffice or any other uni code supported software.