Stopwatch

I was testing how fast a program was loading recently. I found a small stopwatch.exe standalone program that does the job:
http://www.keithv.com/software/stopwatch/

Also there are many online websites where you can find stopwatches and timers. Here's a really nice one:
http://www.timeanddate.com/stopwatch/

Far Manager - copy files fast

Introduction
Copying a lot of files can be a chore. When using Windows Explorer if your copying process is stopped part way then you're stuck, you don't know what copied and what didn't. It's also very slow, the most annoying thing is the time left estimate that with Windows Explorer (especially with Windows XP but Vista and 7 too) goes up and down like a yo yo!


Alternatives
Years ago when I was starting out the best utility for managing files (copy, delete, rename, etc) was Norton Commander. It presented files in two panes. You could see two folder (directory) locations at once and this made copying file intuitive because you could see the source and destination folders on screen at once. Norton Commander was for DOS and since then there's been a lot of similar programs for Windows. If you'd like a similar but Windows style experience then there's Total Commander, I've used it a fair bit and it's a good choice. It's shareware though, which means you should buy it if you want to continue using it. The other thing is, it's a Windows program, whether or not this is real or just an impression, it does seem that it takes extra time to do things like copying files because it has to update the screen and windows.


Far Manager
If you really want the leanest and fastest file manager available for Windows, this is it. Far Manager looks and feels like Norton Commander. Here's what it looks like:

 

As you can see, it does not have a Windows interface! It uses the old DOS text based interface, this makes it fast (or it gives that impression). It's also light on resources. Certainly I've always found it excellent for copying files and that's what this article is all about.

For copying files it's important to know that Far Manager uses it's own copying routine. It doesn't just call the Windows Explorer file copy. This is also another reason why Far Manager works faster (or at least appears to!).


Download and Install
You can download Far Manager from:
http://www.farmanager.com/

There's 32-bit and 64-bit versions, download the one that matches your Windows. If you aren't sure, download the 32-bit one. The installation is the usual, straightforward type.


Using Far Manager
After you've installed Far Manager, start it and have a look around. It can be used with your mouse like a Windows program. However, it really comes alive when you use the keyboard - remember, this program is styled on the classic Norton Commander that those of us with long memories used before mice were common place.

Here's some essentials:

• Press the Tab key to switch between the two panes. 
• Press Alt-F1 to change the left pane to a different drive/folder.
• Press Alt-F2 to change the right pane to a different drive/folder. 
• Press F9 to browse the pull-down menus. 
• Use the arrow keys to navigate the menus and up/down through the file lists.
• Press Enter on the [..] to go up one folder.
• Press Insert to select a file (it's a toggle so press Insert again to deselect).

Look at the bottom of the window - there's a prompt, this is the Command Line (the Windows version of the old DOS prompt). Type commands directly here - this is a useful alternative to clicking Start | Run.

Below that are labels showing the function keys available. Press F1 to see the Help screen, please take a look, it's very useful.

But Far Manager does integrate closely with Windows Explorer's functionality too. For example, right click on a file and you'll see something similar to this:

The options you have on yours will be different, they depend on what you have installed in Windows and are the same as those you see in Windows Explorer when you right click on a file. In the above example you can see I am about to scan a file using Malwarebytes - that's because I have that program installed.


Copying files with Far Manager
Set the left pane (Alt-F1) to where the source files are.
Set the right pane (Alt-F2) to where the destination folder is.
Press Tab to select the left pane.
Press F5 to copy...

Press Enter to accept the defaults and start the file copy.

You can see two progress bars. The first shows which file is being copied right now. The second bar shows the overall progress. There's a time remaining number that is accurate (unlike Windows Explorer's).


Conclusion
If you have to copy a large number of files, especially across network drives, I would recommend Far Manager. It's fast, simple and reliable. The only down point I can see with Far Manager is that a portable version (one that doesn't require an installation) as I'd love to carry it around on a USB flash drive (but if you want this try Free Commander Portable). It's still great and of course it's nice for those who like to reminisce about the old days and Norton Commander! ;-)

Recommended 8/10


References

Far Manager
http://www.farmanager.com/

Total Commander
http://www.ghisler.com/

Free Commander Portable
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/freecommander_portable

Norton Commander on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander

Crunchbang Linux - add a menu option

If you install a new application on Crunchbang you may want to add a shortcut to the menu. In a previous article I wrote about installing Asunder, the audio CD ripping application. As an example I'll explain here how to add Asunder to the Multimedia menu:


Instructions





Right click on the desktop

Click Settings | Openbox | GUI Menu Editor







Click the arrow next to Openbox 3

Scroll down and find Multimedia

Click the arrow next to Multimedia 

Click once to select VLC Media Player (or one of the other items under Multimedia)

Click New Item 

A place holder is created (where it says "New item" under Multimedia above)


Label: This is the name of the shortcut
Id: Leave this blank
Action: Execute
Execute: This is the folder and name of the program to run

In our example we'll call our label Asunder (see above)

For the execute command, either type it in or browse using the [...] button. In our example Asunder can be found at /usr/bin/asunder

Click File | Save

Click File | Quit


Result
Now when you want to start Asunder do the following:
Right click on the desktop
Click Multimedia | Asunder


Understanding
Crunchbang uses the Openbox desktop interface. This is a simple yet powerful system. As with most configuration in Linux the menu configuration is stored in a text file. So above where we used the GUI Menu Editor, that wrote the changes to a file. This is great because if you redesigned the menu structure to your liking you could save the configuration file. Later if you wanted to reuse the same menu structure on another computer, you could by copying your configuration file - simple!

To understand this more, on the desktop right click, click Settings | Edit menu.xml

Above in the editor can you see the Multimedia menu and Asunder? What you entered in the GUI Menu Editor appears here in menu.xml.

In the window at the bottom of the Geany text editor you can see the path, the folder where the menu.xml is stored: /home/michael/.config/openbox/
Of course on your computer it won't be "michael" but whatever your username is.


Conclusion
Again another simple yet powerful Crunchbang feature.

Crunchbang Linux - Rip audio CDs

One use for a Crunchbang Linux computer maybe to store audio (mp3) files. Perhaps you've always meant to rip your CD collection into digital files? Here's a brief look at installing and using one CD ripping program.


Asunder
I found that Asunder is a simple yet powerful program with a graphical interface that will, when you insert an audio CD, download the album and track titles for you. When you start ripping it will  create the music (mp3) files in a folder structure for you automatically. You can also change how it does this and where it stores the audio files using the Preferences menu. Asunder will save in WAV, MP3 or OGG format.


Install Asunder
Right click on the Crunchbang desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo apt-get install asunder   [Enter]


Using Asunder
To start Asunder type: asunder [Enter]

The Asunder interface is refreshingly simple. Insert an Audio CD and it automatically checks the internet for the name of the album, artist, genre, etc. The following is an example - I've blurred the artist, title and track names but of course you will see them in all their glory:

The default setting is to save to OGG files.

If you want to change this or other settings click the Preferences button.

Click the Encode tab...

You can change to MP3 as shown above.

NOTE: OGG is a compressed audio file format, it's similar to MP3, you might get smaller files if you use it. However, if you want to copy your music to an MP3 player, very few support OGG but nearly all support MP3.

The General tab is where Asunder will save your audio files, by default to your home folder. The Filenames folder let's you decide the names of the artist and album folder names. The default is fine for most purposes.

When you are finished changing preferences click OK to save and close this window.

On the main Asunder screen bottom right click the Rip button to start ripping (saving) tracks.


Conclusion
The nice thing about Asunder is that it's simple, it does just what it is supposed to. There isn't a music player or any other fancy feature, it is what it is. If you want to rip one CD after another, this could well be the solution.


References

Asunder
http://www.littlesvr.ca/asunder/downloads.php

OGG file format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg_file

MP3 file format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3

Uninstall Video Performer Manager

Introduction
Video Performer (Manager) is dubious. It causes Java to give the error: 'Could not create the Java virtual machine' (see previous article for more details) and it might be doing other things - who knows? In my opinion it is best to remove this software from your computer.


Control Panel
You can attempt to uninstall Video Performer and Video Performer Manager from Control Panel.

After uninstalling, shut down, restart the computer. However, it is likely that Video Performer Manager is still running on your computer! 

Process Explorer

To check and see if Video Performer Manager is still present on your computer, see if it is running in memory. You can use the Task List but a better alternative is Process Explorer, it is a free, small and light utility from Microsoft:

In the example above you'll see I found two dubious files, the obvious videomnger.exe and also ibsvc.exe which is also from the same company.

In Process Explorer right click on a process exe and you can see where the file is stored on your computer. In the above example the files were in these locations:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\IBUpdaterService
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Video Performer Manager


Ideally we should delete these exe files manually. This will stop them running.


Kill Process and Delete the EXE
Before deleting the exe files you must remove them from memory. Process Explorer has an option 'Kill Process'. Select the process exe you want to kill and press Shift-Delete (or right click and Kill Process Tree).

In my example I did this on ibsvc.exe and it worked, it disappeared from the Process Explorer view.
From Windows Explorer I deleted the folder C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\IBUpdaterService and all it's files/folders. It worked! After restarting the computer ibvsc.exe had gone, when I looked in Process Explorer it was not there and it definitely was not on the C: drive any more.

However, when I tried the same procedure with videomngr.exe nothing happened. I could not kill the process and I could not delete the file.


File Assassin
If you can't kill a process or delete a file from the computer, try File Assassin, it is a free program from MalwareBytes.

Run File Assassin, click the [...] button and select the file you want to delete. For Video Performer Manager:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Video Performer Manager\videomngr.exe

Click  Use delete on Windows reboot functions (as shown in the screen shot above)

Click the Execute button


Also run File Assassin again, this time select the dll file by the same name:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Video Performer Manager\videomngr.dll

Click  Use delete on Windows reboot functions (as shown in the screen shot above)

Click the Execute button

Shut down and restart the computer (do not logoff).

When Windows finishes loading up again, check in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Video Performer Manager folder, the exe and dll files should be gone now. At this stage in Windows Explorer you can delete the Video Performer Manager folder without any problem, this will remove the remaining files.


Clean Up
If you had Video Performer Manager installed then maybe other nasties are lurking on your computer? Here's what to do:

Scan your computer with an anti-malware scanner - I recommend MalwareBytes. There's a free version that is very capable.

Clean your registry and remove old/temporary files - I recommned CCleaner. It's also free and excellent, you may even find that your computer runs a little faster after using it.


Conclusion
If you uninstall a program, restart your computer and double check to see if it's still installed or not. Some programs like Video Performer Manager are sneaky and will live in multiple places on your computer. You can use Process Explorer to check memory and to find where programs are stored. If you can't delete a file use File Assassin.

Utilities like File Assassin and Process Explorer are small and come in 'portable' version which means they are just exe files you can run from a USB flash drive. If you are working in a service desk or providing technical support of any kind, I really recommend you carry these with you at all times. They are very handy!

Crunchbang Linux - remote desktop

If you are using a Linux computer as file storage when it's in another room or headless (without a monitor) it would be good to remotely control the Linux desktop from your Windows computer. You could use Putty as explained in a previous article. However Putty only gives access to the remote Linux computer's command prompt, not to the desktop.

This article explains the basics of setting up Vino, it's a service on Crunchbang that'll allow for remote connections from a Windows computer (and other computers too). On the Windows side we can use a VNC client, more about this later...


Install Vino on Crunchbang Linux
Right click on the desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo apt-get install vino  [Enter]

When it has finished type the following:
vino-preferences  [Enter]

At the top of the window it explains the 'Sharing' information - here you can see how you will be able to connect to your remote desktop. It's always the host name of your Crunchbang Linux computer with .local at the end. In my case it'll be crunchbangT42.local

Security is important but your level will depend on your circumstances. Don't choose 'You must confirm each access to this machine' because that will mean every time you connect to the Crunchbang remotely you'll need to physically go to it and press Enter to accept the remote connection. I do recommend you set a password, that way every time you connect you must enter this password. It will stop anyone else on your network connecting. 

When you've finished click Close



To make Vino start automatically every time you restart Crunchbang, do the following:

Right click on the Crunchbang desktop

Click Settings 

Click Openbox

Click Edit autostart

Scroll to the bottom and add the following:
# Start Vino
/usr/lib/vino/vino-server &

Save and exit the text editor.

The Linux side of the configuration is complete.



UltraVNC Viewer for Windows
Vino is compatible with VNC - in other words, you can use any VNC compatible program to access your Crunchbang Linux computer. I decided to use UltraVNC. It's a nice simple program and there's even a portable version available. In our example here, this is what we'll install:

From your Windows computer, click here and click the download button:
http://portableapps.com/node/2031

Once it has finished download run the exe file, it will extract the files.

Copy the UltraVNCViewer Portable folder to a USB flash drive, your desktop or wherever you want to store it.

Using Windows Explorer browse inside the folder and double click UltraVNCViewerPortable.exe

Enter the host name and .local at then end - in my example I've entered crunchbangT42.local

Click Connect

Enter the password you specified before (in vino-preferences) and click Log On

You'll see your Crunchbang Linux desktop!

References

Help on Crunchbang's website:
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=362

UltraVNC Portable
http://portableapps.com/node/2031

UltraVNC Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraVNC

TightVNC
http://www.tightvnc.com/

Crunchbang Linux - connect with SSH

SSH allows you to connect from a Windows computer to a Linux computer. This is useful for administration, it means you can access the Linux computer without having to go to it physically. You can have access to the command prompt and transfer files to/from it (for administration or for other purposes). SSH is very quick to set up, in this article I'll run through the basics and a couple of essential Windows utilities you'll need.

Install SSH on Crunchbang Linux

Right click on the desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server   [Enter]

Yes that's it on the Linux side! You can now connect with SSH clients. This is just basic functionality, for more details please see the Crunchbang how-to page: http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/howto/ssh


Windows Utilities
To access the command prompt of Linux on your Windows computer, use Putty.
To access the files of the Linux computer use WinSCP.

Putty
Putty is a small exe program that runs on your Windows computer. It allows you to connect via SSH (Secure Shell) to a Linux computer and enter commands at the $ prompt.

On your Windows computer download Putty.exe from:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Double click the Putty.exe file.

In the Hostname box enter the host name of your Crunchbang Linux computer. You can find the host name on the Crunchbang desktop, see below:

Putty will ask you for your Crunchbang login and password. That's it! 

WinSCP
You can download from FTP, SFTP, SSH and more using WinSCP. It's an excellent free utility that if you don't already use it, you'll wonder how you did without it! It can even be driven from the Windows command line. For accessing Linux it is useful for accessing files.

Download WinSCP from here:
http://winscp.net/
There is an installable version and also a handy portable exe you can store on a USB flash drive.

Double click the WinSCP icon

Click New
Enter the hostname (see above)
Enter your Crunchbang Linux username and password
Click Login

That's it! You'll connect to the Linux computer.

NOTE: You can use WinSCP to copy files to/from your Linux computer. However, using SSH it is slow. Instead, if you have a lot of files to copy, I'd recommend using Samba.

References

Crunchbang SSH page:
http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/howto/ssh

WinSCP
http://winscp.net/

Secure Shell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell

Crunchbang Linux - simple file sharing with Samba

Crunchbang Linux is a slim down operating system that works well on older computers. I wrote a previous article about it and how I installed it on an old IBM T42 (with just 512MB RAM!) and a little Asus Eee PC. Crunchbang is great for browsing the web and other light work. Another thing you could do is set up file sharing on your Crunchbang computer. This is especially useful if you have an old desktop with a reasonably sized hard disk. You could use it to share files on your home network or you could use it to store files as a backup.

In this article I'll explain how to set up a simple file share on your Crunchbang computer. We'll use Samba which is the most popular file sharing software for Linux. The commands used here can be used in other Linux operating systems too. I will not go into detail and will explain only the basic steps to get simple file sharing working.

At the end, from your Windows computer you'll be able to browse to and save/open files on your Crunchbang Linux computer.


Crunchbang Linux
To download and install Crunchbang please see my previous article:
http://mgxp.blogspot.ch/2013/03/crunchbang-linux.html


Install Samba
Go to your Crunchbang Linux computer, start it and login as usual.
Right click on the desktop and click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo apt-get install samba libpam-smbpass [Enter]

Samba will download and install. It will ask you for the name of the network workgroup:

Unless you've changed it, accept the default "WORKGROUP".

Configure File Sharing
Change to the srv folder, type:
cd /srv  [Enter]


Create a new folder called share:
sudo mkdir share  [Enter]



This sets the permissions for the share folder to full read/write:
sudo chmod 777 share/  [Enter]


Make a backup copy of the original Samba configuration file, this is just in case you need it for future reference:
sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.original  [Enter]


Edit the Samba configuration file:
sudo geany /etc/samba/smb.conf  [Enter]

The Geany text editor will open the smb.conf file. Replace all the content of the file with the following:

[global]
disable netbios = no
workgroup = workgroup
server string = fileserver
dns proxy = no
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
syslog = 0
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
obey pam restrictions = yes
unix password sync = yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
pam password change = yes
map to guest = bad user
usershare allow guests = yes
security = user
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
load printers = no
printing = bsd
printcap name = /dev/null
disable spoolss = yes

[share]
path = /srv/share
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
create mask = 6777
directory mask = 6777


NOTE:

• The "workgroup=" parameter is set to "workgroup", this is the default name of the Windows network you are connecting to. If your workgroup name is different, change it here.
• The "server string=" parameter can be anything. It should be something descriptive for this computer. If there are two Linux computers configured with the same "server string=" name, one of them will not appear when you look for it from your Windows computer. Therefore, make sure the "server string=" name is unique on your network.

Save and exit the text editor (Geany).

At the $ prompt enter the following to restart Samba:
sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart  [Enter]

Wait for 30 seconds.


On the Windows computer
Go to your Windows computer, browse in Windows Explorer to your Network, browse under Microsoft Windows Network and Workgroup - you should see your Crunchbang computer appear in the list.

In the above example from a Windows XP computer you can see I've found my Crunchbang computer. In brackets you can see it says "Crunchbangt42" - this is the host name of my Crunchbang computer, yours will be different. you can find the host name on your Crunchbang desktop:

On your Windows computer, if you can't find the Crunchbang computer on the network, on the Windows Explorer address bar you can type \\ and the host name directly. In my case I would enter "\\crunchbangT42".

If you are using Windows 7 click Start and enter \\ and the name of the host in the search box. Click on it...

In Windows when you click the share folder you'll be prompted to login:

This is a Windows XP connect box but you will see something
similar for Windows 7 or any other  version of Windows.

Enter your Crunchbang username, password and click OK. If you want this Windows computer not to prompt you for a password next time, click the [ ] Remember my password box.

The above is the result. You can copy files to/from this location.

Finished!

References

The following Youtube video shows in more depth how to set up Samba. My thanks to the author as it what I used as a starting point for this article.
http://youtu.be/P7lvuJdsrMY

Samba
http://www.samba.org/

Crunchbang
http://crunchbang.org/

Crunchbang Linux - change the keyboard layout

When I installed Crunchbang on my Asus Eee PC I made a mistake and selected the UK keyboard layout. I have the US layout. Now how to change the keyboard layout?

Right click on the desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo geany /etc/default/keyboard   [Enter]

The Geany text editor will pop up, look for the following:

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

Change XKBLAYOUT= to what you want. In my case I changed from XKBLAYOUT="uk" to XKBLAYOUT="us".

Save and exit Geany.

Restart Crunchbang for the change to take effect.


Reference
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=1103

Crunchbang Linux - change the time zone

If your Crunchbang Linux has the wrong time, perhaps you have the wrong time zone set? To change time zone do the following:

Right click on the desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata  [Enter]

A menu will appear:

The mouse doesn't work, navigate using the keyboard arrow keys and Enter to select. In the above, press Enter on your region.

Select the city closest to you

Finished!


Reference
http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges