Running out of storage? If you are running out of space in your Linux system, these simple steps will help you in freeing up some space in your Linux system. 

When you install an application, the packages are downloaded to your system. However, once the installation is complete, these downloaded packages remain in the system and take up space. So, to remove downloaded packages that are already installed and no longer needed, type in the following command in terminal : 

sudo apt-get clean

Some packages becomes obsolete or have a newer version in the repository, you can remove those packages stored in your cache by typing the following command : 

sudo apt-get autoclean 

To remove these un-necessary packages that have been left after the uninstalling an app, use the below command : 

sudo apt-get autoremove

The autoremove also deleted the dependencies that were installed during the installation of the application and are taking up space in your system.

To see the installed packages which are sorted by size : type the below command : 

dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Installed-Size} ${Package}\n' | sort -nr | less 

If you see any app that is taking a chunk of space in your Linux system which you do not use, uninstalling it can be good way of freeing up space in Linux. 

Remove files from /var/tmp

The /var/tmp directory stored temporary files which you do not need it. Check the size and delete the bigger ones.

Remove old kernels and header files. 

Check your current Kernel version by typing 

uname -r 

Now, check the old kernels and header files : 

dpkg -l linux-image-* linux-headers-* 

Now, remove the older kernel versions from your system : 

sudo apt-get remove linux-image-oldKernel linux-headers-oldHeaders 

Lastly, check for the Trash and clean it. Also, if you are movie junkie like me, chances are that half of your storage is filled up with movies. When I run out of space, I check the list and deletes those which I am not interested in watching again!

Is there any other way you know which can free up some space in a Linux system? Tell us in the comments. 

Fedora 25

Fedora Project has announced the launch of Fedora 25 which runs on Linux Kernel 4.8 and comes with GNOME 3.22. Fedora 25 comes with next-generation Wayland display server on the workstation edition replacing the legacy X11 system to provide a better and smoother graphical experience. It's released in 3 editions - Workstation, Serve and Atomic Host. Atomic Host is the replacement for Fedora Cloud. The latest update provides many bug fixes and enhancements including: 

• Docker 1.12 container for packaging your application into a standardized unit for software development
• Node.js 6.9.1 - latest version of server side javascript engine for building fast and scalable network applications 
• Support for Rust - another stable and fast programming language 
• Multiple Python versions 

The Fedora Project is an open source Linux Distribution which is community-driven and is sponsored by Red Hat Inc. Fedora 25 is a stable release and focused on truly open source software. By default, it comes with GNOME 3.22 desktop environment.

The Fedora Workstation introduces the Wayland display server replacing the legacy X11 to give the users a better graphical experience and capabilities for modern graphics hardware. It makes easier for the Windows and Mac OS X users to switch to Fedora by including Fedora Media Writer which helps user to find and download the current Fedora release and write it to removable disks and USB to test and use it. You can then install Fedora 25 in Virtual Box or along with Windows 10. 

If you are already running Fedora 24, it's easier for you to upgrade Fedora 24 to Fedora 25.

You can get Fedora 25 from the official site : https://getfedora.org/

Atomic host has replaced Fedora Cloud in Fedora 25 which is a lightweight, immutable platform designed to run containerized applications. It uses the same package repositories as Fedora server and provides the latest versions of the Atomic. 

Fedora Server is a community sponsored server OS helping you to manage your system with Cockpit's powerful and modern interface, view and monitor system performance and status and deploy and manage container based services. It brings an enterprise-class scale-able database server powered with PostgreSQL.

You can read the complete release announcement on Fedora Website : https://fedoramagazine.org/fedora-25-released/ 

Linux Mint had finally rolled out the KDE Edition based on Ubuntu 16.04. It was in beta stage earlier and the final roll out is available to download from September 09. The Linux Mint KDE Edition is based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and will receive updated for 5 years. 

Credit : Linux Mint Blog

In an official announcement, Clement Lefebvre announced for Sarah KDE edition. The new roll out features KDE Plasma 5.6 Desktop Environment and various improvements to update manager. There are various System Improvements and many new artworks in the form of wallpapers are there to soothe your eyes. It is based on Linux Kernel 4.4.

Minimum System Requirements for Linux Mint 18 KDE Edition includes 2 GB RAM, 10 GB of storage (20 GB recommended), and 1024x768 resolution screen. 

How to upgrade to Linux Mint Sarah KDE Edition

If you are looking for a clean install, download the ISO from here, and burn it to a disc. If you are already running the BETA version, click on refresh button in Update Manager and apply any pending level 1 update.

Note : You cannot upgrade from Linux Mint 17.3 KDE since it uses Plasma 5, so you will need to opt for a clean install in that case. 

I will be trying it in a day or two and write about it more. Thanks for reading by. 

Ubuntu restricted extras contains most of the commonly used media codecs and fonts for Ubuntu and it is advised to install Ubuntu Restricted Extras as the first thing after installing Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus. Its a software package for Ubuntu that installs essential software which are not the part of Ubuntu Installations by default due to legal / copyright issue. Ubuntu is an Open Source OS and the packages under Ubuntu Restricted Extras are proprietary software, hence you are asked for it's installation. 

If you are a new user and installed Ubuntu 16.04, most certainly you will not find audio playing, or a message on any website to install Adobe flash plugin.

The steps to install ubuntu-restricted-extras in 16.04 an easy process and we will see how you can do it. 

Through Command Line

You can install Ubuntu Restricted Extras through terminal by typing in the following command :

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

This will download and install all the packages. 

The installation steps will appear and it will ask you to accept EULA for Microsoft Software. Click on OK.

It will again ask for the same for TrueType core fonts for the Web EULA. Select OK and the installation will finish. 

At last a message will pop up, "All done - no errors" and you have successfully installed Ubuntu Restricted Extras in Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus.

If you face any issue, tell us in the comments. 

Fedora 24 was released last month and lately I tried it after installing on my HP Pavilion dv6 model and the overall experience is awesome. In this article, I am covering up the installation of Fedora 24 along with the different desktop environments, minimum system requirements, features and what's new in the latest release and things you should do just after installing Fedora.

Minimum system requirements for Fedora 24

If you wish to install and use Fedora as your primary OS, you need to have these minimum system requirements for it's smoother functioning.

• 1GHz or faster processor
• 1GB System Memory
• 10GB unallocated drive space
• Minimum screen resolution of 800 x 600 for graphical installation 
• Minimum hardware for Accelerated desktops 
• Intel prior to GMA9xx
• NVIDIA prior to NV30 (GeForce FX5xxx series)
• Radeon prior to R400 (Radeon 9500)

Download Fedora 24

You can grab a Fedora 24 copy from Fedora website : https://getfedora.org/workstation/download/. There are options to download 32/64 bit versions. I would suggest you go for a 64-bit version.

Creating a live USB for Fedora 24

If you are on Windows host, you can create the live USB through liveUSB creator. If you are using Ubuntu, you can use the similar software - Unetbootin. You can use the command line too from Ubuntu or other Linux distros to create a live USB.

Read : Creating live USB for Fedora 24

Installing Fedora 24 in Oracle VM Virtual Box

You can either use the live USB to try out Fedora 24 before you decide to switch completely to it. Or, if you have been already using it and want the latest release, you can install it along with other OS or completely replace it.

Virtual Box is a great way to try out, and even work out on distros without having the pain of creating a separate partition and having to worry about the GRUB menu troubleshooting. The advantage of VM Ware for people like me is that we can't create unlimited no. of partitions for trying out the different flavors of Linux with limited hard disk space.

Installing Fedora 24 in Oracle VM Virtual Box is very easy and it will take some min at max. You need to set up a virtual machine first and then use the ISO you downloaded to install the Fedora 24 in the virtual box as a fix OS.

Read here the steps for :

Setting up Virtual Machine for Fedora 24

Installing Fedora 24 in Virtual Box

Installing Fedora 24 in a dual boot with Windows 10

The process of dual booting Fedora 24 along side with Windows involves the step as of Installing Fedora 24 in Virtual Box. The additional steps involves creating a partition and making sure you do not actually over write the Windows partition in the process of dual booting Fedora 24 with Windows 10. I say this, coz I have done this mistake once and lost all my data. Rest all steps are same as Installing Fedora 24 in Virtual Box.

This is all for today, we will be covering some more topics related to Fedora OS in coming days. Thanks for reading this, do subscribe to our blog. 

Microsoft announced on Wednesday the "Ubuntu on Windows" to bring Linux command line tool Bash to Windows 10 Operating System in its Microsoft's annual developer conference. Both Microsoft and Canonical has partnered together to allow Bash on Windows 10 natively without any containers and Virtualization. Although this has been done from a long time from third party tools like Cygwin, it has its own limitations and providing a native support for Bash command line to Windows 10 is a step to invite outside developers. 

The "Ubuntu on Windows" will be available as an Upgrade later this year for Windows 10 user. This comes as a surprize for Open Source world, since Microsoft has always confined itself within "propretory" limitations and a partnership with Canonical was something highly unexpected. 

Bash i.e. Bourne Again SHell, is an open source unix shell and command line interpreter for the GNU operating systems. 

Microsoft in its blog said that the "Ubuntu on Windows" is an attempt to make working with open source tools on Windows easier. SO, they has decided to provide the native support for Bash which run directly on Windows in an environment that behaves like Linux. 

Once it will be released, developers/users will be able to run Bash scripts, Linux command line tools like sed, awk, grep and can even try Linux-first tools like Ruby, Git, Python directly on Windows. Accessing your Windows filesystem within Bash will be easier. However, it wont support Windows Application interaction so you might not able to open a Windows app say Notepad from Bash. One a lighter note, this may remind you of something opposite to "Wine for Linux".

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical addressed it as something that was unpredicted. 

In our journey to bring free software to the widest possible audience, this is not a moment we could have predicted. Nevertheless, we are delighted to stand behind Ubuntu for Windows, committed to addressing the needs of Windows developers exploring Linux in this amazing new way, and are excited at the possibilities heralded by this unexpected turn of events.

Microsoft wil release it first to the Insiders and then susequently for all Windows 10 users. WHat do you think, is it something that will benefit both Microsoft and Linux?

The Linux/Unix systems are multi-user systems and each file and directory has its own permission. This is in fact can be related to the origin of Unix which was conceived as a network system with multi users simultaneously working in the same environment. In that case, it is important to distinguish each file and directory's access rights to keep it secure. It is important to control which user has the right to modify or delete any file or directory.

Check file permission symbols

Run the command ls -l and you will the list of files and directories like below:

-rw-r--r--  1  ambarish  users  1201  Dec 12  13:10 info.txt

This basically represents that the file info.txt was created on Dec 12, at 13:10 and has a size of 1201 bytes. It belongs to the group "users" and is owned by the user "ambarish" in particular.

-rw-r--r--, drw-r--r-- basically represents the file permission.

1 - denotes the file type. a hyphen (-) denotes a regular file. "d" denotes a directory.
2,3,4 denotes read, write, execute permissions for the owner of file.
5,6,7 denotes read, write, execute permissions for members of group owning the file.
8,9,0 denoted read, write, execute permissions for all other users.

How to set permission of a file/directory

We can use chmod command in Linux to set permission of a file or a directory. They syntax is

chmod [permissions] [filename]

The permission can be assigned to any file or directory using the octal number system. 4 represents read access, 2 for write and 1 is for the access to execute.

So, if you want to assign a file read / write / execute access, it will be 4+2+1=7.

e.g.    chmod 777 info.txt 

will change the file access rights such that owner, group, and others and read, write and execute the file. You have to work out with the numbers.

7 = 4+2+1 - read, write, execute
6 = 4+2 - read write
5 = 4+1 - read execute
4 - read
3 = 2 + 1 write, execute
2 - write
1 - execute

Here's an infographic showing the file permissions in Linux/Unix.

Source: itsfoss.com

Anything I missed? Please add it in the comments section.

Its been more than a month now since LibreOffice 5.0.4 has been released and is now available for download and upgrade. LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite, an open source alternative to Microsoft Office developed by The Document Foundation available for different Operating Systems like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Originated from OpenOffice.org in 2010, it is now the most widely used office suite for Linux users. The LibreOffice suits includes word processor, spreadsheets editor, slideshow creator, diagrams and drawings creator, database and mathematical formula support.

LibreOffice is available in 110 languages and is compatible with other office suites like Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.Org. So, before we see how to download and install LibreOffice in your system, lets see what is the system requirements. LibreOffice 5.0.4 is the latest release which includes bugs fixes from the last release is much more stable.

System Requirements for LibreOffice 5.0.4

Windows

• Microsoft Windows XP SP3, Vista, Windows Server 2008/2012, Windows 7/8/10.
• Pentium III or above processor
• 256 MB RAM (512 MB is recommended)
• 1.5 GB of free storage
• 1024x768 resolution or higher.

Apple -Mac OS X

• Mac OS X 10.8 or higher
• Intel processor with 512 MB of RAM and 800 MB of free disk storage
• 1024x768 graphic device or higher resolution

GNU/Linux

• Linux kernel v2.6.18 or higher
• glibc version 2.5 or higher
• gtk version 2.10.4 or higher
• 256 MB RAM - 512 MB is recommended
• 1.55 GB of free storage.
• Gnome 2.16 or higher.
• X server with 2014x768 resolution, or higher

How to download/install LibreOffice 5.0.4 in Windows

Download LibreOffice for Windows from the official website: LibreOffice for Windows

Open the installer by double clicking it, and follow the steps through the set up.

The typical set up will install the default components including user interface languages and spelling dictionaries matching your current language settings.

In Custom Installation, you can choose the program features you want to install and the path of installation.

In the File Type dialogue box, you can choose the LibreOffice to be the default application for Microsoft Office file types.

Click on next and Finish. You have now successfully installed LibreOffice in your Windows PC.

Download LibreOffice for Mac OS X

Download the .DMG file from the official website: LibreOffice for Mac OS X

Double click the .DMG file. There is an installation window, drag and drop the LibreOffice icon to the Applications folder.

The installation will proceed further and notify you when completed.

Download and Install LibreOffice in Linux

Download the LibreOffice 5.0.4 from its official website: LibreOffice for Linux 

You will have a .tar.gz archive. Right click on the downloaded archive and select "Extract here".

Open your terminal, and navigate to the directory where you extracted the archive.

To install the .deb package, use the following command,

sudo dpgk -i *.deb

You can upgrade to LibreOffice 5.0.4 if you are running an earlier version by using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-5-0-4
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Help needed: I'm need of LibreOffice screenshot for different Linux Distributions. Please mail me at bloggingwithmb@gmail.com. Sharing is caring!

Linux Mint has grown to the one of the best Linux distributions and is highly user friendly. Instead of trying various things, the Mint developers are always polishing the OS in itself and it does provide one the best UI and ease to use Linux Distribution. However, sometimes the users often forgets the passwords and are unable to login to their Linux Mint system. There is not to worry much. By following simple steps, you can easily reset password in Linux Mint and keep on working in th Linux environment. If you have forgot your login/password in Linux Mint, you can easily reset your Linux Mint password.

Follow these steps to reset your password in Linux Mint.

Reboot your system and press the Shift key while your system starts. It will enable GNU GRUB2 menu for you. If you are dual booting with Windows, the screen where you are asked to choose the OS is the GRUB menu, so you are already there.

Select the Linux Mint option from where you login, and press e to edit.

You will see

linux /boot/vmlinuz-[kernel version]-generic root=UUID=[letters and numbers]\[letters and numbers] ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7

at the end of the screen. Navigate to the above line and replace ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7 with rw init = /bin/bash


Now, the line will look like 

linux /boot/vmlinuz-[kernel version]-generic root=UUID=[letters and numbers]\[letters and numbers] rw init=/bin/bash

Press F10 to boot your system. The system will boot in a password less boot shell. Type the following command in the terminal to reset your password:

passwd <username>

Linux Mint will ask your password for the username you just provided, and will confirm it.

Restart your system, and now you can easily login to your Linux Mint with the new username/ password. Remember that the changes you made above, you do not need to revert it back. Just restart the system when you are finished changing the password in your Linux Mint system.

Lynx is one of the best text browsers that can be used within the terminal to see any web site in plain ASCII text on the terminal itself. It do not deliver any images/multimedia/flash content and is used mainly by those who are mostly interested in reading texts and are distracted by the flash/graphical content.

Lynx text browser is also useful when you do not have a GUI installed on your Linux system. With only-text browsing, Lynx is much faster since it do not display any other bandwidth-consuming data. Navigation is done by using the arrow keys in Lynx and installing and using Lynx text browser is much easy.

It is a highly configurable text-based web browser in terminals. There is support for HTML and SSL in the latest version of Lynx web browser. Though it do not handles or renders images/videos from any web page, it can launch external programs to handle it, like an image viewer and or a video player.

Install Lynx browser in Linux

To install Lynx browser in your Linux System, use the following command in terminal:

sudo apt-get install lynx

Lynx will be installed.

Now to open any website within your terminal, type the following command:

lynx <web-address>

e.g. if you want to open beopensource.com use the following command:

lynx beopensource.com

You can use the UP, DOWN arrow keys and tab to navigate to different links in a webpage.

Lynx text browser is particularly useful for low-specification system since it do not need any GUI support.

I have installed Lynx web browser in my Linux Mint. Here's how it renders my website www.beopensource.com in terminals:

Here's what Shaun Marolf has to say about the Lynx browser. Thanks a lot Shaun.
Lynx has a good speed advantage in rendering websites. However, its only useful with information related websites where the HTML code is mostly text. Using it on a graphically intense site is self defeating. That being said, as a research tool for gathering information it shines brightly as popups, ads, unnecessary video tags and graphics are ignored and the meat of what you are trying to get is seen. It has one major weakness though as click throughs (web sites where you have to click through a pop up before you can get to the actual information) can be a severe problem with Lynx. Lynx itself is a pure HTML, XML rendering browser and where sites use Ruby and AJAX and other script based apps that Graphical Browsers can work with Lynx will not and if the functionality is needed then Lynx is useless.
Lynx is not for, nor intended for, the average Internet User. Its geared for researchers and tech savvy users and that needs to be considered. Truthfully its made for nothing but the basics.

Note: I will try to be short and clear. 

First of all, let us see what Wikipedia says about Net neutrality:

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.

This mean that your ISP is free to charge or overcharge or can ask for a million dollar for 1000mB of data or charge you more for a higher speed data plan - and then you decide you want to take the plan or not. But what they cannot is - they cannot restrict you in any way to use that data plan. You are free to type either Google.com, tweet something, upload a pic to Instagram, watch a YouTube video, download a free pdf, or utilize your data plan reading Tom and Jerry cartoons.

So, why this Net Neutrality and #SaveTheInternet in India all of a sudden?

The reason for this sudden #NetNeutrality and #SaveTheInternet is a little complex but clear. With WhatsApp and Viber, text message services has gone outdated and the revenue these telecom operators would have still been generating is counting as a loss to them. Plus with WhatsApp calling feature, Line free voice calls, Viber free video calls and then we have skype too, the telecom operators feels that soon the VoIP will replace normal calling and all a user will need is an Internet Pack. They are trying to restrict this freedom.

Not to forget the recent Airtel announcement to offer free usage for Flipkart App [Flipkart is a online shopping website] limiting or compelling the users to ignore competition.

Airtel even tried to charge differently for Voice over Internet Protocols - in simple language, the free calls you do from any app, or the video calls you do using Skype. But a protest delayed it.

The telecom operators are still trying to lobby TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) for this, what we can call, anti-net-neutrality. 

What you need to do to #SaveTheInternet? 

Watch this #AIB video first:

TRAI has asked public opinions and the above video explains what you need to do. Visit the website http://www.savetheinternet.in/  and send TRAI a message.

The Logical Indian in its recent article Explained everything about net neutrality in short and precise manner.

Wake up guys. You need to act to continue using Internet the way you are doing for last 20 years.

Be Open. Be Free. Keep the Internet Open. #BeOpenSource requests you to give a shout. 

-ambarish

Today is April 6th, 2015 and www.beopensource.com completes one year. I started it as a personal blog to keep all problems and their solutions after I started using Linux. With no intentions of making any money from the blog and marketing it, I still managed to get a good number of visitors. The number are not so big for me, but then I never concentrated on technicalities like Search Engine Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media Effect blah blah. 

BeOpenSource started as a way for me to thank Open Source and Linux World. When I wrote my first article The human knowledge belongs to the world, the main inspiration behind it was the fact that for an Operating System (Windows 7), I had paid a good amount and the license still restricted me not to share it with anyone. I mean why I should not.

Do Windows always make a Windows 7 dvd from the scratch starting from the development, testing and build and release? No, I believe. They worked on the first release, create thousands of copies and sell them at the same cost. The human efforts were only for the first time they developed it. And then they don't allow you to change anything you bought, or share it with your dad. I may sound awkward but this is the main reason for the growth of a parallel work, the Open Source World. 

Open Source ensures you receive anything from Operating System, Drivers, Softwares free and you have the right to copy, modify, redistribute and use it the way you want. I won't go into this, since if you are reading this article, you already is an open source enthusiast and must have more knowledge than me :) 

Okay, coming back to one year journey. After my first words on the blog, The human knowledge belongs to the world, I wrote another article defining Open source and distribution terms. Then I tried Booting Ubuntu from USB and DVD without installing it, and find it very much competitive to Windows along with the fact that it was free and open. 

In a day or two, I realized that I don't want to use a USB or DVD each time, and installed Linux Ubuntu in Oracle Virtual Machine. I faced the Blank screen after entering password on Login and once I got over it with perfectly installed and working Ubuntu in my system on a Virtual Box, I switched to a complete installation along with Windows. I didn't want to remove windows since I had already paid for it. 

I found various Linux Desktop Environments, Text Editors, Installed VLC Media Player, and Ubuntu restricted extras.

I tried other Linux distributions - Linux Mint, Fedora, Debian and RedHat. If you ask me, Debian was the best for me. 

I even used Open source owns the web infographic from jordanopensource.com and Liz Mills allowed me to publish her words Linux Mint - from freedom came elegance on beOpenSource. 

The journey for the first year is not so big, but yes it is satisfying. I made some money from showing some ads that helped buy the domain for another year and pay my internet bills. 

BeOpenSource will continue for another year, and with the help of others may even grow bigger. If you have anything under your head that can benefit the open source/ Linux world, feel free to mail me at mb.linux.world@gmail.com and it will be here. :) Thank you, thanks a lot guys. I have learned a lot in the time and yet, a lot still is pending. Take care. 

-Ambarish