Giving a hostname to a Zentyal server

A very easy way to name your Zentyal server is to use the following format when asked about a host name:

ServerName.DomainName.local

ServerName = The name of the server e.g. MyServer
DomainName = The domain name e.g. ElectricalServices

So in the above example the hostname would be: MyServer.ElectricalServices.local

Reply above or Below in Thunderbird

When you get an email on Thunderbird and you want to reply you have the option to quote the original email above or below your reply.

To change the way Thunderbird replies do the following:

1. Goto Tools.
2. Go to Account Settings.
3. Tick/untick Start my reply above the quote.

And that's it.

Installing NVIDIA drivers in Ubuntu

To install the NVIDIA drivers in Ubuntu do the following:

1. Open the command console
2. Type in Sudo apt-get install Nvidia-current

And that's it.

Automap Network drives in Zentyal

To automap network drives on a Zentyal server to be used with Windows clients do the following:

1. Go to the Zentyal Server (But ofcourse!)
2. Open Leafpad and create a file called e.g. "mapDrives.bat" with a single line as follows: net use X: \\servername.domainname.local\share_name
3. Go to Domain Group and select Group Policy Objects.
4. Select Default Domain Policy and click on GPO Editor icon (it's the cog icon).
5. Navigate to User Configuration Logon Scripts and click Add New.
6. Select the above batch file and clilck Add
7. Log off the Windows client and log back in.

The drives should be there. Hopefully this will help.

Ask a computer question

Well I'm bored today. And when I'm bored I need something to do. I was trying to think something amazing to do (because I only do amazing things...Pff yeah right) so I said to myself (yes I do speak to myself, what's wrong with that?) "I know what I'm going to do! I'll start a section where people can ask Computer questions! Yeah! That would be cool!"

So there you go. You can now ask questions or requests for troubleshooting, by adding them in the comments bellow, and I'll try my best to answer them. Questions include things like "what's the best phone for me" (oh boy that's a tough one) and the like.

Be aware though; questions that have nothing to do with IT will be deleted on the spot. (Or turned into soup, what ever seems more delightful).

Install Gnome in ClearOS

Sometimes the console in ClearOS may not be the most easy to work with (or you may like pretty pictures and icons and buttons like I do) so what do you do then? Easy..You install Gnome! And how do you do that you ask? I'm glad you did. Very easy.

First of all I tend to enable all repositories in ClearOS even if I'm not going to use them. Ehh if it breaks, it breaks. I can fix it later on.

Log in to the console as root, and type:
yum install gnome-common nautilus gdm
yum install xterm
yum install gnome-panel
yum install gnome-terminal

After the installation finishes type startx to start the GUI. This way I was able to install Opera, manually add permissions to folders in different parts of the Flexishares and in a way faster and easier than the console. Go on give it a go, it might be helpful for you too.

Installing Oracle VM Extensions under Ubuntu

To install the Oracle VM Extensions that will allow you the usage of USB under Virtualbox do the following:

1. Download and install the same version of the extensions as the Virtual box.
2. Type Sudo usermod -aG vboxusers yourUserName in a terminal.
3. Log off and log in again.
4. Open the VM control panel and tick under USB to use USB 2.0.
5. Plug the USB device. The OS will grab the device. Eject it and the Virtual box will see it is now free and capture it for itself.

I have tried that with various USB devices; some where found straight away (like an iPod for example), others never did. It's a hit a miss I guess.