Installing Skype on Ubuntu 64 bit AMD

Here is a tip for anyone like me that is running 64 bit Ubuntu on AMD processors and wanting to install Skype.  This is what I ran into recently and I found a solution so I wanted to share.  This is a one liner that will take care of it for you, or at least it did with me on 8.04 Hardy Heron.

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs lib32asound2 libasound2-plugins;
wget -O skype-install.deb http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-ubuntu;
sudo dpkg -i --force-all skype-install.deb;

See? That’s all there is to it! This installs some supporting libraries as well as Skype itself. I broke this into multiple lines at the semicolons so it would display properly, but you can run it all as one big command or seperately. Enjoy!

Linux and ISO images

For any of you out there that work with Linux and ISO images, here is a nifty trick for mounting your ISO images directly without having to burn them to CD’s first. Basically, pick your mount point (/mnt/iso in this example) and your ISO image (/tmp/myimage.iso in this example) and go. Check out this command:

mount /tmp/myimage.iso /mnt/iso/ -t iso9660 -o loop=/dev/loop0

And there you have it, the ISO file is now accessible at /mnt/iso, it’s just that easy!

Vi reference

I created a nice little reference document for Vi and Vim.  It gives some background and history, and then goes on to explain a few things as well as provide a list of a lot of useful commands for use within Vi and/or Vim.  Vi and Vim are very powerful text editors found on any NIX platform.  Take a look at these commands and shortcuts and turn your Vi time into a powerhouse of productivity!

Veritas Volume Manager Goodness

Hi folks, it’s been a bit since I put anything new up here, life has been real busy lately.  To that end though, I have been working on stuff for the site, and I just posted something that I think is very useful.  It took awhile to put it all together, but nothing is too good for my visitors.

I have been working with Veritas Volume Manager, now called Veritas Storage Foundation lately.  I have worked with it in the past, but not as in depth as I have in recent weeks.  I decided to make a reference for myself, since I seem to get into it for a bit and then don’t touch it for awhile because it just runs.  Then I figured I would make it as comprehensive as I could, plus easy to read, pretty, etc, and then post it here for anyone and everyone that might find it useful.

I have it on the site in HTML format here, and I also have it up in the downloads section as a PDF if you wan to download a copy.  Check it out and let me know if you see anything I missed, I hope you find it useful!