21 February 2013

New Computer, Old OS: How To Migrate Linux Between Machines



linux move between desktopsTechnology is progressing forward at a pretty fast rate, so much so that it isn’t uncommon for you to find yourself buying a new computer or computer part. For example, you may want to buy a brand new laptop or replace a dying hard drive that your system is currently using. In cases like these, it would be great if you can simply move your operating system over to the new hard drive or system with as little fuss as possible.


While this may be a challenge if you’re using Windows, especially when it comes to the necessity of reactivating your copy, this is done a lot more easily if you’re running Linux. In fact, you even have a choice of a number of different ways, but I’m only going to recommend the ones that I find to be the easiest.


Fresh Install


The most common way for you to move your Linux installation over to a new hard drive is to simply reinstall Linux on the new system and copy over all of your files. Although this is the most common way of moving your system and files, I’d actually only recommend this if you cannot connect the two hard drives together to the same machine, no matter if you’re moving to a new hard drive or a new system. While backing up your files, you should look in the /home, /etc, /opt, /root, and /var folders for anything that you may want to keep. Desktop users may want to primarily look in the /home folder as that is where all your personal files are located, while server users should primarily check through /etc and /var for configuration files and hosted data.


Keep A List Of Installed Packages


linux move between desktops

Debian-based distributions have an easy way to list all installed packages on your system and write that list into a simple text file. This list can then be used on your new Linux installation to mark all packages that need to be installed again. To create the list, you’ll need to run the command sudo dpkg --get-selections > /home/[your user name]/packagelist.txt, while replacing [your user name] with the appropriate entry. To mark packages for reinstallation on the new system, copy the text file over to that system and run the command sudo dpkg --set-selections < /home/[your user name]/packagelist.txt.


This will mark all packages that you want back, but it won’t actually install them until you run the command sudo apt-get -u dselect-upgrade. This should install all packages from the official repos which you had on your old system, so a lot of familiar software should reappear after some time to download and install. Don’t forget to also restore your backed up data to the appropriate folders, and ta-da! Your system should now be back to the way it was!


Copying Your Partitions


linux move between desktops

If you are able to connect the old and new hard drives (or the hard drive of the old system and the hard drive of the new system) to the same machine, you can easily copy the entire Linux partition(s) over to the new hard drive. This method will make it a lot easier to keep your Linux environment the way it is because you won’t have to freshly install the distribution and all needed packages. Besides having the two hard drives connected to the same machine in some fashion in which the computer recognizes them both, you’ll also need to have a DVD or USB drive which has the distribution live environment on it.


As an example, a burned or written copy of the Ubuntu ISO will do just fine — just remember to keep it the same as what you already have installed, including whether it’s 32-bit or 64-bit. Once you have the live environment from the DVD/USB running, you can open Gparted and simply copy the partition(s) you want to keep over to the new hard drive by “copying and pasting” it in the interface. When copying over to a larger drive, resizing after the move is possible, while when copying to a smaller drive, you must resize the partition before moving it. Once the partition(s) are copied over to the new hard drive to the point of satisfaction, you will need to run a few commands in order to install the correct bootloader onto the new hard drive. To get the GRUB bootloader in working order on the new hard drive, run:


sudo mount /dev/sdX# /mnt

sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc

sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf

sudo chroot /mnt

grub-install /dev/sdX


You’ll need to replace all instances of “X” in those commands for the new hard drive, and replace all instances of “#” for the partition number of the root Linux partition. All of this information can found via the Disks application as found from the Dash. Now go ahead and move the new hard drive into the correct machine and boot from it to load your distribution. Once inside your running Linux instance, you’ll need to run sudo update-grub to make sure that the GRUB bootloader correctly identifies the partitions on your system, across all hard drives. This is an especially important step if you have another partition or hard drive with another operating system on it such as Windows.


Conclusion


Hopefully with these two methods, you can quickly, easily, and efficiently move over your Linux installation to a new hard drive or system. Provided you follow the instructions correctly, it should work without fail. Those with questions or those needing help can comment on this article and I’ll try to assist them as best as I can.


Have you moved a Linux installation before? Do you find these instructions to be easy? Let us know in the comments!


The post New Computer, Old OS: How To Migrate Linux Between Machines appeared first on MakeUseOf.



New Google Weather OneBox for Desktop



Google updated the weather OneBox from the desktop search interface to match the tablet interface. The new OneBox is huge, it includes more information and it's more interactive. While the old OneBox only displayed the weather forecast for 4 days, the new one has an hourly and an 8-day forecast for temperature, precipitation and wind.






Here's the old interface (I've managed to take this screenshot by pretending I'm using IE7 and changing the user-agent):









It's interesting that many search features are first added to the mobile/tablet interface and a few months later to the desktop UI.



{ Thanks, Mikhail. }


Google Drive's File Previews



Google Drive has a new feature that lets you preview files using an interface borrowed from Google+. This feature is not restricted to photos and videos, it also works for Google Docs documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, Microsoft Office files, PDF, PostScript and XPS files and TrueType fonts.






It's interesting that Google Drive shows the new previews if you click a file that's not associated with a web application. For examples, the previews don't show up if you click a Google Docs document, so you need to right-click the file and select "Preview".






"When previewing a file, it's easy to flip through nearby files by clicking the arrows on the left and right sides of the preview window. This is a great way to scan through a group of photos you've stored in your Drive," explains Google. You can also use the left and right arrow keys to navigate to the other files and up/down arrow keys to scroll up/down in documents. While the previews don't let you edit documents, you can select text, zoom in or out, find text (Ctrl+F), print the documents or share them with other people.






The feature is currently rolled out, so you may not see it yet in your account. Check back later or sign in to a different Google account.



{ via Google Drive Blog }


Deal With Facebook Procrastination With These Tools And Tips



facebook procrastination Whenever I visit Facebook, I’m sucked into my News Feed. Maybe I just wanted to join an event or respond to a private message, something you can’t do via email. Instead I find myself reading updates from my friends for half an hour. And how could you not care about what your friends share? Facebook is addictive.


Wanting to spend time on Facebook, reading what your friends are up to, and interacting with them, that’s OK. It becomes an issue, however, when you spend time on Facebook despite having much better and more important things to do, like writing this article. That’s when you are procrastinating.


So this article is here to help us deal with Facebook procrastination. There are tools and techniques you can use to limit your time on Facebook, but the root of the issue is your behavior. I can’t help you with the latter, but I can show you how to get started with the former and form some habits that will get you out of your procrastifacebooking.


Close the Facebook Tab & App


This one is simple. Just don’t keep Facebook open, neither on your browser, nor on your mobile, or in any other way. Close all the apps and disable all the notifications, and remember to close Facebook after every use. This will eliminate unwanted distraction. Relief!


facebook procrastination


Open Facebook on a Schedule


Set a schedule for when it’s OK to use Facebook. Resist the urge to open Facebook outside this schedule, but don’t beat yourself up if it happens. The key is to strictly limit your time on Facebook, but still allow yourself to spend a reasonable amount of time on Facebook.


Author Charles Duhigg says you need to accommodate the habit of checking Facebook. He argues that if you allow yourself to spend 5 minutes per hour on Facebook, you will be more productive throughout the day, than if you tried to ignore the urge to check Facebook and then got sucked in for a whole 45 minutes.



One tool that can help you set a schedule and time limit is Quickrr Facebook Rehab. This Chrome addon grants you one hour per day on Facebook per default. Click the settings icon to customize the extension.


procrastination tool facebook


You can change the daily time limit, set a Facebook-free day and hours during which you will be blocked from visiting Facebook.


procrastination tool facebook


As with any such tool, it can’t really force you to stay away from Facebook. It’s up to you to practice some discipline, change your behavior, and build new habits.


If you like this Quickrr extension, check out the other Quickrr addons for Chrome.


Read Facebook via Email


What worked for me was to check important Facebook updates via email rather than waiting for the red numbers to pop up on the website. You can enable email notifications in Notifications Settings. Make sure you filter Facebook emails into a separate folder, so they don’t clog up your inbox.


procrastination tool facebook


This tip will only work if you actually have a healthy habit for checking emails. That’s a whole different story, though.


Manage Your Facebook Web Interface


So you will eventually spend time on Facebook after all. What you can do to make this time worthwhile, is to be sure you only encounter meaningful content. Hide notifications you don’t need to see and change what updates you see on your News Feed. When you hide individual updates, you will also see a link to hide all updates from the respective page or change what type of updates you see from a particular friend.


how to avoid facebook procrastination


Curating your News Feed takes time, but it’s worthwhile. The less clutter makes it onto your News Feed, the less time you will waste on Facebook.


Finally, you can use a tool to disable those distracting numbers (metrics) that pop up all over Facebook. Not only the eye catching red ones in the top left, but also all the little blue and grey ones indicating how many messages you have or how many comments there are to a post. The Facebook Demetricator is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. The video below demonstrates how it works.



A similar, yet much more powerful extension available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, is Social Fixer. It allows you to take full control over your Facebook appearance, fixing annoyances, enhancing existing functionality, and adding new features. Once installed, the addon takes you through a seven step setup wizard when you next visit Facebook.


how to avoid facebook procrastination


Social Fixer allows you to hide a lot of distracting items on Facebook, like the ‘ticker’ feed of friends’ activity or sponsored or duplicate stories in your News Feed. One of its best features is filtering, which you can use to hide selected content or move posts with specific keywords into a separate tab. That’s ingenious because it can help you focus on a specific set of updates at a time, instead of having to scroll through a random mix. Finally, Social Fixer adds several useful buttons to your News Feed and individual posts, including Mark All Read or Save for Later.


facebook procrastination


If you like Social Fixer, you might also like these addons to get rid of some annoying Facebook features.


Conclusion


Facebook procrastination is a hard nut to crack. It takes time to get used to new habits and change your behavior, but with a little effort and the right tools you can do it. The reward will be having more focus when you work and more time left to spend with friends and family when you’re done with work.


Do you have more tips to battle Facebook procrastination?


Image Credit: procrastination via Logobird


The post Deal With Facebook Procrastination With These Tools And Tips appeared first on MakeUseOf.