By Mike
The Ubuntu Forums has upgraded the forums software to vBB 3.7. This will add many new features, including tagging and social groups. Please check it out and let us know what you think.
Forums Upgrade FAQ:
Q. What happened to all the old posts?
A. We have put all the posts from the “Main support category” to an archive area, which only allows members to reply to existing threads. It is not possible to create new threads in this area. All new threads need to be made in the newly created areas and tagged with prefixes/tags.
Q. Why did you archive all the old posts?
A. We wanted to give our forum a bit of a fresh start to take advantage of the new prefix/tagging system that vBulletin 3.7 offers. All old threads and posts are still available to read, may be replied to, and will continue to show up in the search index.
Q. Whoa! I hate the forum theme…
A. Yes, its a change. We will continue to make a few adjustments over the next several days.
Q. Will the old theme be available?
A. No, there are no plans to make that theme available due to the template upgrades with vBulletin 3.7. We have ported or are porting the most important aspects of the former theme to the new template system, and we believe everything else will require a little bit of time to all of us to adjust.
Q. Why can’t I give thanks or see my thanked posts?
A. We’ll be migrating this feature later this week.
Q. What happened to the gallery?
A. Currently, the gallery is offline until we decide if we want to upgrade it. vBulletin 3.7 has a gallery built in that may prove to be more than adequate for the needs of our community. We are going to wait and see before making a final decision either way.
Q. How do I use the new gallery built into vbulletin?
A. Go to your UserCP and then select “Pictures & Albums” you will then be able to create a album.
Q. What happened to the option to choose from a top or a left view for information when looking at posts?
A. Currently, only a left view is available. We are unsure if a top view will be made.
Q. Why my beans are not hidden anymore?
A. We’ll be adding this feature again soon.
Q. Why don’t my operating system(s) that I selected show on my profile?
A. This will be fixed soon.
Q. When posting a new post I no longer see a selection of posts that might pertain to my question.
A. We are researching to see if we can migrate this feature over.
Q. I hate this upgrade, please go back to the previous version of the forum.
A. Sorry, we can’t.
Q. I am confused between “prefixes” and “tags”, how do I post?
A. A prefix is a pre-defined “keyword” that we have given certain areas of the forums. For example, you may have a problem with sound in “Ubuntu” you would select “Ubuntu” from the prefix list and then enter “sound, sound blaster audigy, gnome” as your keywords. Keywords are just a few quick words that might “tag” your post with specific phrases this will help when doing searches etc.
Q. How do I customize my user profile?
A. You can customize your user profile by going to the UserCP and then by selecting “Customize Profile” or follow this link http://ubuntuforums.org/profile.php?do=customize
Q. What are social groups?
A. Social Groups are a new feature of vbulletin 3.7 and we will be turning those on in the near future.
Q. What are the bookmark icons such as digg, delicious and others on the bottom of the post page?
A. You can now submit a specific thread to various social networking sites from within the forums.
Q. I received a notification of a “Incoming Friend Request” what is this?
A. Users can now request that people on their buddy list confirm their friendship, after which time a person’s list of confirmed friends will be viewable to other users on their profile page.
Q. What is this “Visitor message” on my profile?
A. The new forum software has a feature allowing users to communicate publicly via their profile pages with each other.
Q. Jabber no longer appears in my profile, what happened?
A. The plugin used is not compatible with the forum software upgrade. We will watch for an upgrade in the near future.
By Mike
Due to weird text refresh issues I have been seeing with Xchat, I have switched over to irssi as my main IRC client. One thing I have missed is GUI notify of people private messaging me. I have found an irssi script that adds this function.
1. Install libnotify-bin
sudo aptitude install libnotify-bin
2. Install notify.pl script from http://code.google.com/p/irssi-libnotify/wiki/MainPage to ~/.irssi/scripts/notify.pl
3. Set to autorun at irssi startup (optional)
ln -s ~/.irssi/scripts/notify.pl ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun/notify.pl
By Mike
Every once in awhile, a small tweak on how you do something gives you unexpected results. One of the April Fool’s joke we pulled on the Ubuntu Forums has caused some interesting things to happen. Matthew explains it better in this post.
From Matthew: FYI to all readers. This forum was originally called the Backyard, as you can see from the rules. The name was changed as a April Fool’s Day joke on April 1, 2008. On that day, the pink text was also added. This amused a lot of people, so we left it like that for a few days, and immediately noticed a change in the tone of posts and conversations in this forum. Perhaps the new, more whimsical name and color have had an affect on members in their posting styles? In any case, for the time being, we have decided to leave it like this. The Backyard is now called “OMG pInK pOnIeS” in honor of the famous Slashdot.org April Fool’s Day prank of 2006 (Google it), and the default text color is now pink, because it has had such a positive impact on posting styles and caused a drastic decrease in the number of reported posts from this forum.
By Mike
The Utah Open Source Foundation and Ubuntu Utah are having combined release party for Ubuntu 8.04 and Fedora 9.
When: May 3, 2008, 6-8pm (or thereabouts)
Where: Code Greene, 44 Exchange Place Salt Lake City, UT 84111 (MAP)
Spread the word with this flyer, please join us for the festivities if are going to be the in Salt Lake City area on May 3rd.
Please RSVP if you plan to attend.
By Mike
It has been said that the Ubuntu Forum moderators are secret and hidden group. The truth is that we are all NINJAS. We welcome to join us in REAL ULTIMATE POWER by celebrating ninja week on the Ubuntu Forums.
I look forward to banning you soon!
By Mike
I have been playing with Hardy Alpha 5 on my laptop this weekend and it is a truly a work of art, with a few rough edges. One of the main problems I have been having is with my Synaptic touchpad. It was over sensitive and scrolling would not work.
After reading varies forum posts and wikis I have found a xorg.conf that work will for me, YMMV. The sections in green are what I added to my base xorg.conf.
# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type “man xorg.conf” at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Generic Keyboard”
Driver “kbd”
Option “XkbRules” “xorg”
Option “XkbModel” “pc105″
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
EndSection
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
EndSection
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “LeftEdge” “1900″
Option “RightEdge” “5000″
Option “TopEdge” “1400″
Option “BottomEdge” “4500″
Option “FingerLow” “25″
Option “FingerHigh” “35″
Option “MaxTapTime” “180″
Option “MaxTapMove” “220″
Option “ClickTime” “0″
Option “VertEdgeScroll” “1″
Option “VertScrollDelta” “45″
Option “HorizEdgeScroll” “1″
Option “HorizScrollDelta” “45″
Option “MinSpeed” “0.08″
Option “MaxSpeed” “0.60″
Option “AccelFactor” “0.003″
Option “EdgeMotionMinSpeed” “200″
Option “EdgeMotionMaxSpeed” “200″
Option “TapButton1″ “1″
Option “TapButton2″ “3″
Option “TapButton3″ “2″
Option “SHMConfig” “on”
EndSection
Section “Device”
Identifier “Configured Video Device”
Driver “nvidia”
Option “NoLogo” “True”
EndSection
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Configured Monitor”
EndSection
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Monitor “Configured Monitor”
Device “Configured Video Device”
Defaultdepth 24
EndSection
Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Default Layout”
Screen “Default Screen”
Inputdevice “Generic Keyboard”
Inputdevice “Configured Mouse” “CorePointer”
# Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
# InputDevice “stylus” “SendCoreEvents”
# InputDevice “cursor” “SendCoreEvents”
# InputDevice “eraser” “SendCoreEvents”
Inputdevice “Synaptics Touchpad”
EndSection
Section “Module”
Load “glx”
EndSection
–
My 5 today: #194960 (gnome-power-manager)
Do 5 a day - every day! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/5-A-Day
By Mike
Woot!
Today the Ubuntu Forums added its 500,000 register user. It great to see the continue growth of the Ubuntu community.
By Mike
The next Ubuntu Forums Council meeting will be held on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 22:30:00 UTC. We have a fairly large agenda this month, and really like community feedback during the meeting.
Agenda:
jdong: Implementing a positive feedback “Reputation” system
jdong: Damage control mechanisms. Ways that staff/admin can trigger more moderation power
MikeBasinger: Policy on malicious code in post and protecting users from it, and discussion of ForumContentCertification spec
MikeBasinger: Implementing the Ubuntu membership approval by the Forums Council
By Mike
The forum thread of this week is by professor fate. Professor fate and his friend have a bet about Ubuntu vs. Microsoft and invited the forums community to observe the challenge.
Quoted from professor fate:
Hello,
I am here because of a bet I have with a friend. This is the deal: I have to use Ubuntu for 30 days. IF there is anything I can’t do on Ubuntu (except for games which he reluctantly conceded is Microsoft turf) that I can do on Vista, then I get a brand new laptop courtesy of my buddy. IF on the other hand, I lose, I have to pay for his new laptop.
The rules:
1. I have to post any and all questions I have about installing and using Ubuntu on this forum.
2. I have to save all of my correspondence.
3. I cannot use any other OS for 30 days, except for my computer at work.
4. If I can demonstrate that Ubuntu isn’t neck to neck with Microsoft in anyway, I win.
5. I have to use open source software as much as possible. If there is no equivalent, then I get to use MS software, but using some sort of emulation software to run it on. (Buddy said I’d have to learn about it here).
6. My friend wanted me to use Feisty, but I told him to step up to the plate, so it’s going to be Gutsy. (I figure since it’s new, it must have lots of issues, so the better for me).
Well, there it is. I plan on winning this bet, but I will be fair. All of this will start tomorrow. Tonight is the last evening of my beloved Microsoft for 30 days. I am downloading Gutsy and will install tomorrow.
Professor Fate
This forum post was recently on the front page of Digg, so this thread is getting a lot of attention.
By Mike
This is a re-visit of my guide for Ubuntu Feisty, updated for Gutsy.
- Install 3D drivers for your video card if you have not already. It may work without these drivers on some cards.
- Install dependencies:
sudo apt-get install python-imaging python-opengl libgtkglext1 python-gtkglext1
- Launch Applications –> Games –> Chess
- Go to View menu and select 3D
For an extra challenge, install the crafty engine:
sudo apt-get install crafty
Wiki Page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/3DChessboard
