ISO Mounting Tools For Linux

One of the most sought after tool for Linux systems is ISO mounting tool.During my early days on Linux system I badly missed 'DaemonTools' which I used to for mounting ISO or image files on windows system for installing applications and installing games. But what about Linux ?? Are there tools available for the same function ?

Answer is 'Yes' , there are many tools available to do this job. In this post we will discuss few of the ISO mounting tools available for the Linux systems. So here we go..

1. Furius ISO Mount :

Furius ISO mount is having a simple GTK+ interface and having capability of mounting multiple image file formats like ISO,IMG,BIN,MDF and NRG without burning to disk. It can automatically create mount point in your home directory and can save the history of last 10 images mounted. Also this application can burn the ISO files to optical disks for further usage. One special feature this application has is to create a log file of all commands needed to mount and unmount the images manually. You can download it from here ,

However following dependencies needs to be satisfied before installing 'Furius ISO Mount'

python (>= 2.5), python-support (>= 0.90.0), fuseiso, fuseiso9660, python-gtk2, python-glade2, nautilus, gksu

Installation

On 'Ubuntu' :

The user needs to enter the below command (without quotes) in the terminal box to install the most recent version of 'Furius ISO Mount' from its software repositories.

"sudo apt-get install furiusisomount"

On 'OpenSUSE' :

Packaman provides a 1-click Install file to install “Furius ISO Mount”. Click here to download and open with YaST2 package manager to install “Furius ISO Mount” in openSUSE.

2. Mount Manager :

A nice and detailed guide for using 'Mount Manager' application can be found here

3. Gmount ISO :

This is one another application which enables you to mount your ISO image files,it is a small application written in PyGTK and Glade.

Installation

On Ubuntu :

Open the terminal by pressing the key combination of 'Ctrl+Alt+T' and enter the below command;

"sudo apt-get install gmountiso"

4. AcetoneISO :

AcetoneISO is one of the feature rich application available for 'Linux' for your image file mounting needs. It can burn ISO/TOC/CUE to optical discs. It also allows you to blank the re-writable CD or DVD for repeat usage and could also extract the image file to desired folders. By using AcetoneISO you could convert ISO file from any folder in your system and lot many features are there, a detailed list can be found here.

Installation

On Ubuntu:
starting from Ubuntu 10.04 and up ,

"apt-get install acetoneiso"

Packages for previous versions of Ubuntu can be found here

On Debian Sid:

 "apt-get install acetoneiso" or here

On OpenSuse: hereOn Fedora: hereOn Mandriva: urpmi acetoneiso
On Archlinux: here
On Slackware: here
On Gentoo: here
Subversion for developers (SVN): here 

Enjoy !

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How To Install VMware Player On Ubuntu

VMware Player is a freeware virtualization software package from VMware, Inc which enables the user to run virtual appliances on the host machine. From the version 3.0, VMware Player can also create virtual machines, versions earlier than 3.0.0 of VMware Player were unable to create virtual machines, requiring the user to download pre-created virtual appliances or create machines for use in Player with the full VMware Workstation.

For Ubuntu and various Linux distributions, there is a open-source alternative available i.e Sun Microsystems’s VirtualBox which exactly does the same task that VMware Player does. O.K we will not cover that now in this post.
Installing VMware Player in Linux system is quiet tricky unlike installing in Windows machine as there are various dependencies that needs to be suffice before installing VMware Player on your Linux host. The main dependencies are listed below;
1. Linux Header Files
2. Linux Latest Kernel Files

Step 1 : So to install these dependencies first, fire up the terminal in your Ubuntu by pressing the key combination of Ctrl+Alt+T.

Step 2 : Copy the below command as it is and paste in the terminal;

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(euname -r)

Step 3 : The above command will install all the packages necessary for our VMware Player installation. Now head towards the VMware homepage and download the latest VMware Player setup for your Linux system, make sure you are downloading the correct version in respective of your operating system i.e 32bit or 64bit.

At the time of writing this post, the latest version of VMware Player available is VMware-player-3.1.3-324285.

Step 4: Once you have finished downloading the VMware Player setup, right click on it and click on ‘Properties’. In the opened dialogue box, click on the ‘Permissions tab’. In that tab tick the checkbox in front of ‘Execute’ as shown in the below image. Ticking the checkbox allows you to execute the file as program.

Step 5: In the same folder where the setup is downloaded, open the terminal and enter the below command to direct the system towards the setup file.

cd (path-of-the setup file) 

(you can obtain it by pressing the key combination of ‘Ctrl+L’)

Step 6: When you will be done with the step no. 5, open the terminal again and copy the below command into the terminal box.

sudo ./VMware-Player-3.1.3-324285.i386.bundle

If you are following my instructions as they were written then it should open the installer window as shown in the below image;

Step 7: Now go to ‘Applications’ then to ‘System Tools’ and you will find ‘VMware Player’ icon there, click on it to start the application;

Step 8: On the first start VMware Player will compile the kernel modules for its use, let it compile.Once done you will be presented with the VMware Player welcome window.

Step 9: If you have any existing Virtual machine you can open it by clicking ‘Open Virtual Machine’ icon or you could create new one by clicking on ‘Create a new virtual machine’ icon.

In this way we could install VMware Player on your Ubuntu system. Enjoy !

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Linux Screen Recording & Capturing Applications

There would be many occasions in your day to day work or life when you want to guide someone in using any particular application for any purpose but can't give him step-by-step instructions, wouldn't it be best if you could record the whole screen and send the video to the person in need ?

Well in such as case screen recording or Screen Capturing applications can come to your rescue.
For windows you could find plenty of commercial as well as free-ware screen recording & capturing applications But what about Linux ?
Well not to worry, in this post I will cover some of the Screen Recording and Screen Capturing applications available for our Linux system. So lets take a look of our options:
XVidCap Screen Capture
This one is my favorite screen recording application which I use frequently. It is a screen capture utility which enables you to capture videos off your X-Window desktop for illustration or documentation purposes. It is a worthwhile alternative to the Windows based application CamStudio.It captures the video which could be saved in MPEG or AVI format which you could easily view by using player like VLC Player or Linux native movie player. It is available in .deb format for Ubuntu & Debian Linux in both 32 bit & 64 bit version.
It is very easy to install it if you are using Ubuntu or Debian.For Ubuntu go to Applications- Ubuntu Software Center
In the Get software search box type – XVidCap Screen Capture
The software center will show you the install available page as XVidCap is available in the Ubuntu repository and click on install by providing administrative password.

To access XvidCap, click on Applications- Sound & Video –XvidCap Screen Capture Click on it ,on clicking you will get a small window with the available options .You will find a red rectangle beneath the application window.

Stretch the red window upto the area that you want to cover in the recording and click on the red button to start the recording as shown in the below image;

Now you could record anything on your screen in a video format.

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How To Become Root In Ubuntu

As in Linux the admin rights are not given to every user who log-in to the system and by default Ubuntu has no password set for the ‘root user’. But there could be some reasons and time when root login is needed to perform some tasks like software installation or changing the computer’s configuration.

Being a root gives you the administrator rights and you could perform various things which are normally forbidden like changing or deleting everything from the system.

So assuming that you have full understanding of the consequences you might face by using root privileges wrongly in your system , hereby I am mentioning a simple way to set up ‘root password’ for your Ubuntu system.
Step 1 : First of all fire up the terminal by pressing the key combination of 'Ctrl+Alt+T'
Step 2 : In the terminal type sudo passwd 
and press 'Enter' ,you will get the screen like this ;

Step 3 : Next system will ask for your current system password so provide it (though you can't see it while typing but it is there ) and press 'Enter'
Step 4 : In the next line System will ask to enter the new password for root , so provide the new root password by typing it , it will again ask you to enter the new password to confirm it.
Hurray !! You have successfully setup the ‘root password’ for your Ubuntu system now.
Step 5 : Log out from your current logon and choose ‘other’ in the login window.
Step 6 : Enter ‘root’ in the username field and enter your new password in the password field to login as ‘root user’ in the system.
Word of Caution :
Be very careful while using ‘root user’ and be a ‘root’ only when absolutely necessary. Do the things only when you know what you are doing , or you could seriously mess up your Linux system.
So this was a quick way to set up a root user password for your Ubuntu system. Enjoy !

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