HowTo: Migrate an Apt-Mirror-generated Ubuntu archive to another mirror source or merge a foreign Apt-Mirror archive into yours
So, you’ve gone and created your very own local Ubuntu mirror using Apt-Mirror, and you’ve come across a situation similar to:
- You’ve decided to change where you update your Apt-Mirror archive from (eg: you’ve changed ISP’s or feel that another source is more reliable than your current one to update from)
- You’re adding another large repository to your Apt-Mirror archive (such as the next version of Ubuntu) and don’t have the quota to download it, so you’re getting a friend to download it for you from their free server using Apt-Mirror (eg: iiNet and Internode customers can access their respective Ubuntu mirrors for free), so you need to be able to merge it with your own Apt-Mirror archive and have it update from your preferred source afterwards.
So how do you do this? Read on.
HowTo: Restore the Windows Master Boot Record (without using a Windows CD) using Ubuntu Karmic.
You know how it is – you take a client’s Windows based machine, do a dual-boot installation of Ubuntu (which replaces the Windows Master Boot Record, or MBR, with GRUB and sets up an option to boot Ubuntu or Windows) so the client can evaluate Ubuntu, but then later on for whatever reason, Ubuntu is no longer wanted. It’s removed and you need to restore the system’s ability to natively boot Windows directly without a GRUB menu.
You’re probably thinking “why the hell would anyone want to do that?!”… well, the fact of the matter is you sometimes come across a client who is just too mind-set and refuses to use anything but Windows, so yes – sometimes you need to restore the Windows MBR, but how do you do that when you don’t have a Windows CD handy?
Well, here’s how to do it using nothing but an Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic LiveCD.
HowTo: Make use of Ubuntu PPA repositories
What is a PPA repository?
A PPA is a Personal Package Archive hosted by the ubuntu.com servers that contains binaries and/or source related to a project. The project can be anything from a new application to a backport of an existing one. A good example is the easy availability of OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 to Intrepid users before Jaunty came out rather than having to deal with the mess of packages from Sun’s own website.
PPA’s can be wholly personal to you or may be open to the public. In particular it is very useful for providing Ubuntu packaged versions of a given application instead of dealing with tarballs or converting RPM packages.
So how does one make use of a pre-defined PPA and are there any things to be wary about? Read on.
HowTo: Upgrade Ubuntu to the next version without burning a physical CD.
As you are probably aware, Ubuntu has a regular six-month release cycle, and if you are someone like me, then you are probably regularly downloading all the Alpha and Beta versions as well as the final releases. The problem with such regularity is that this would use up an awful lot of blank CD’s that you will probably only use a few times before discarding just to install these upgrades.
Fortunately, you don’t have to burn Ubuntu CD ISO images to a physical disc to upgrade your installation to the next version. Here’s how to do it using just the ISO image, or wholly via the Internet with no ISO image or CD at all.
HowTo: Uninstall software that makes Ubuntu’s boot process fail
Whilst rebuilding a friend’s Medion laptop, in my attempt to get the Wireless LAN adapter working, I set about trying to use ndiswrapper and the Windows drivers. Unfortunately upon rebooting, the system failed to boot, always locking up when the boot process tried to load the Windows driver. It was so bad that I wasn’t even able to boot to a recovery prompt because it still attempts to load the hardware drivers before dropping you into a root shell.
The solution was simple – get rid of ndiswrapper and that will prevent the offending Windows driver loading which I can then delete afterwards, but how do you do this when you can’t even boot to a terminal?
With the assistance of an Ubuntu LiveCD (on USB stick in this case), I was able to remove ndiswrapper without needing to do a complete re-install of the system. Here’s how to do it.
HowTo: Make and simplify sources.list files
With Penguin-fans everywhere madly hitting Ubuntu mirrors worldwide today grabbing the Final Release of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex (including myself), people are discovering that using the official major country mirrors can be a bit slow. In the case of Australia, the official mirror is au.archive.ubuntu.com but it’s much slower than many of the other official and unofficial Australian mirrors, especially if your local ISP keeps their own mirror.
It makes sense then, to change your setup to point to a faster mirror rather than rely on the primary.
