The best software I have found for ripping music CDs to MP3 is Sound Juicer. Sound Juicer can be found in the Synaptic Package Manager. Once it is installed you can rip to wav or ogg files. For MP3 format one must also install the following packages:

Copy and paste the following into the terminal:

• 
  sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
  

Once installed open the application: Applications --> Sound & Video --> Audio CD Extractor

Go to edit --> Preferences (as shown below)



As shown in the following image, select CD Quality, MP3 (.mp3 type)



Also notice in the 'Preferences' window you can choose a location on your hard drive for placement of the MP3 files.

Click close, insert a music CD, then select 'Extract', found on the main Sound Juicer application window.

And, that's it!! Enjoy!

I have an Nvidia video card. To get the most appropriate driver I will install and run EnvyNG-gtk, which can be downloaded via the Synaptic Package Manager. Once it''s installed, running it is a snap! Applications -> System Tools -> EnvyNG

I selected "Automatic Hardware Detection", then Apply.


Immediately after selecting apply the following window popped up. Once the operation was complete I confirmed and closed the application.


Now I can attempt to get my dual monitors working by using the Nvidia GUI. The previous operation installed the Nvidia X Server Settings tool which can be accessed at Administration -> NVIDIA Server Settings.

At this screen select X Server Display Configuration


At this screen select the "[Disabled]" monitor on the right, then select Configure below.


I prefer to have my screen extended over two monitors, so I chose "TwinView". Selecting "Seperate X screen" will result in a menu bar on each screen. In "Seperate X screen" one will not have the ability of dragging items from one screen to the other. I recommend "TwinView", then select "OK".


At this stage you should save the settings to the Xorg.conf file by selecting "Save to X Configuration File".


As shown below, select "Merge with existing file" and Save


The reason I have an error, "Unable to remove old X config backup file ''/etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup'', is because I can''t save the xorg.conf file unless I am in super user mode.



Thus, one should not launch the NVIDIA Server Settings application from Administration menu. Instead it the NVIDIA Server application should be opened using sudo in the terminal:

• $ sudo nvidia-settings
  

From the sudo command in the terminal the NVIDIA Server Settings application will launch in sudo mode. One can now follow the instructions as mentioned above, but this time there will be no error when saving to the xorg.conf file.

A good place to start a website is on your own personal server. So why not set up a local host on our own Ubuntu box and get moving? Open up the terminal and follow these three steps:

1. Install the MySQL server and client: $ sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client


2. Install php5: $ sudo apt-get install php5-mysql


3. Install phpMyAdmin: $ sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin


Okay, now you''ll need to create a directory where you can build websites within the server directory and give it permissions. Follow these steps:


4. $ sudo mkdir /var/www/directoryname


Okay, now you need to give permissions so that you may work freely in your new directory. As follows:


5. $ sudo chown yourUserName /var/www/directoryname

Now you are ready to create websites from scratch, or perhaps you''d like to install a content management system into your bewky born directory! Have fun!

On my notebook computer I have Virtual Box running quite well. On my desktop the results are quite different at this point. On attempting to start up a virtual machine the following pop up error occurs:

VirtualBox kernel driver not installed. The vboxdrv kernel module was either not loaded or /dev/vboxdrv was not created for some reason. Please install the virtualbox-ose-modules package for your kernel, e.g. virtualbox-ose-modules-generic..

VBox status code: -1908 (VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED).

Interface:

Result Code:	0x80004005
Component:	Console
IConsole {1dea5c4b-0753-4193-b909-22330f64ec45}

And here''s how it presents itself:


The error message tells me to install the virtualbox-ose-modules package for my kernel. To identify my computers kernel I will open the terminal and execute the following code:

• $ uname -r
  

And when I do I get the following reply: 2.6.24-19-generic

In the Synaptic Package Manager I search for VirtualBox and select to download and install the following:

virtualbox-ose-guest-modules-2.6.24-19-generic

Despite the fact that I have the driver installed now, the same error remains. I posted for help at the VirtualBox forum. This is how I learned that I should ensure that I have installed Install gcc, automake, autoconf, kernel-source. Then I had to actually uninstall the virtualbox-ose via the Synaptic Package manager. I then downloaded VirtualBox directly from the following web page: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads. Once installed I was able to open the VirtualBox, then the guest operating system without the error!

I have an Nvidia video card. To get the most appropriate driver I will install and run EnvyNG-gtk, which can be downloaded via the Synaptic Package Manager. Once it''s installed, running it is a snap! Applications -> System Tools -> EnvyNG

I selected "Automatic Hardware Detection", then Apply.


Immediately after selecting apply the following window popped up. Once the operation was complete I confirmed and closed the application.


Now I can attempt to get my dual monitors working by using the Nvidia GUI. The previous operation installed the Nvidia X Server Settings tool which can be accessed at Administration -> NVIDIA Server Settings.

At this screen select X Server Display Configuration


At this screen select the "[Disabled]" monitor on the right, then select Configure below.


I prefer to have my screen extended over two monitors, so I chose "TwinView". Selecting "Seperate X screen" will result in a menu bar on each screen. In "Seperate X screen" one will not have the ability of dragging items from one screen to the other. I recommend "TwinView", then select "OK".


At this stage you should save the settings to the Xorg.conf file by selecting "Save to X Configuration File".


As shown below, select "Merge with existing file" and Save


The reason I have an error, "Unable to remove old X config backup file ''/etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup'', is because I can''t save the xorg.conf file unless I am in super user mode.



Thus, one should not launch the NVIDIA Server Settings application from Administration menu. Instead it the NVIDIA Server application should be opened using sudo in the terminal:

• $ sudo nvidia-settings
  

From the sudo command in the terminal the NVIDIA Server Settings application will launch in sudo mode. One can now follow the instructions as mentioned above, but this time there will be no error when saving to the xorg.conf file.

[ if you are installing Ubuntu for the first time, skip this first blip, with your Ubuntu disk in your CD drive boot up your system. click here for next step ]

My System76 has been freezing up on me at least once per day ever since I installed the latest Ubuntu, which is 8.04, the Hardy Heron. So after trying to troubleshoot the problem for a week or so with the help of support via the Ubuntu forums, the problem remains. So I will reinstall Hardy Heron.

Before I do I will back up the xorg.conf and the sources.list files. The xorg.conf file is already configured for my dual monitor set-up. And, the sources.list file has critical settings for getting drivers needed for the System76 hardware. To back them up I will open up the terminal and type:

• sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
  
• sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
  

With each file open I can "save as" and save it to my flash memory stick. Once I have reinstalled Ubuntu I will replace these two newly installed files with the two I have backed up.

As shown below, Ubuntu is running from the install disk. Double click the "install" icon on the desktop.


Next few steps are self explanatory...




At this stage I selected Guided - use entire disk.



Okay you are ready to go. Select "Install"