First Step

Before we proceed, let’s make a few things clear. First of all, I am assuming that you have Perl installed on your system. Apart from that, I’ll be using the following directories to install the Perl module:

/home/perl_modules/bin
/home/perl_modules/man
/home/perl_modules/man/man1
/home/perl_modules/lib

You can create these directories (bin, man, man/man3 and lib) anywhere you want. We will use that path in the Perl configuration. You should replace the path used in the tutorial to your own directory path.

Second Step

Now we need to define some variables to configure Perl locally. These configuration will be used to tell the Perl module where it should be installed. To do that, I would suggest that we write all those variables in one file and then use it while installing. It will save us time and effort in writing the lengthy commands and will be good for future use.

Let’s say we create a file “perl_local_config” in /home directory (the file can be created wherever you want):

touch perl_local_config

Now let’s edit this file to set the configuration variables. Write the following variables in it:

PREFIX=/home/perl_modules \
INSTALLSCRIPT=/home/perl_modules/bin \
INSTALLBIN=/home/perl_modules/bin \
INSTALLMAN1DIR=/home/perl_modules/man1 \
INSTALLSITELIB=/home/perl_modules/lib

Third Step

Download the Perl module from the CPAN (or from wherever you want). Unzip it. Go into the module directory. Now, the standard steps of installing a Perl module is:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install (if all tests are successful)

Since you do not have root access, the perl Makefile.PL will give error. And here comes the local configuration file to our rescue. Run these commands one by one:

perl Makefile.PL `cat /home/perl_local_config`

If the Perl module depends upon other Perl module then the above command will generate error. In that case, download and install the modules on which it is dependent. Same procedure, which we are discussing here, would be followed.

make 
make test

All tests should pass successfully.

make install

Further troubleshooting

When running the Perl module may generate error like this:

Can't locate Locale/Recode.pm in @INC (@INC contains: XXXXX......XXXXX) at /home/bin/your_perl_module line XX.

That means that Perl is looking for your module in standard lib directory and not the one where you have installed it. To solve this error, add the locally created lib directory (/home/perl_modules/lib in the example) to the library path like this:

export PERL5LIB=/home/perl_modules/lib/perl5/:/home/perl_modules/lib/perl5/site_perl:

Do change the paths with your own directory path.

I hope that the tutorial was easy to understand and simple to follow. I also hope that you are now able to install Perl modules locally, without super user privileges, like a champ now. I would appreciate your feedback. Do subscribe to newsletter if you found the tutorial helpful and want to stay in touch for more updates. Enjoy :)

The advantages of using a PPA is that you can add new application package to your existing repository and install it the way you normally do (by terminal or Ubuntu Software Center). Additionally, when there is new update in the application, you will be automatically upgraded.

With all that said, the only problem with PPA is that not all applications come with a PPA. And for those that have one, it can be difficult to find. For new users, adding the PPA involves the command line, which many people will shun as much as possible. Y PPA Manager aims to make the above process much easier.

Y PPA Manager is a simple tool that allows you to search for PPAs and install them without hitting the terminal. It also allows you to manage (add/remove/purge) your existing PPAs with a few clicks.

Usage

Open a terminal (hopefully this will be the last time you install PPA via the terminal) and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager

Once installed, go to “Applications -> System Tools -> Y PPA Manager“.

There are few options for you to manage your PPAs

Add PPA

If you know the PPA, you can add it to your repository using the “Add PPA” option.

After Y PPA Manager has added the PPA, it will also run a update on your system to retrieve the package files. When it is done (it will notify you via the NotifyOSD), you can go to Ubuntu Software Center to install the application.

Remove PPA

When you select the “Remove a PPA” option, it will show you all the existing PPAs you have installed in your system. You can then select the one you want to remove.

Search for PPA

The best part about the Y PAA Manager is that you can search for PPAs right within the app. Double click the “Search All LaunchPad PPAs” option and perform your search. If there are matching results, it will display in a new window and you can then select the PPA and install it in your system.

Purge PPA

Removing a PPA only prevents the application from being updated. Your installed application will still be the same. On the other hand, purging a PPA will downgrade the packages to the version in the official Ubuntu repositories and disables that PPA. In Y PPA Manager, you can also purge a PPA with the “Purge a PPA” option. Similarly it will display the list of installed PPA and you just select the one you want to purge.

Wrapping up

Most of the functionality in Y PPA Manager are just wrapper for the commonly used commands. Seasoned users might prefer the command line more than using this application, but I am sure that new (or novice) users will appreciate the simplicity and usefulness of this app, and also save you from the terror of the terminal.

One thing that I hope to see is the ability to install applications right after I have added a PPA. People don’t add PPA for fun. They will add PPA so that they can install certain applications not found in the repository. If Y PPA Manager can show the respective applications after adding the PPA and provide an option for the user to install the app, it will be perfect.

What do you think?

Android and Google – the unbreakable link

First of all, you need to know that Android was developed by Google. It is therefore closely linked to your Google account. When you first power on your Android phone, it will prompt you to setup your Google account, after which it will link your Google Contacts, Gmail and Google calendar to your phone.

The main screen

The main screen is akin to your desktop in your computer. This is the place where you are going to spend countless of hours staring at. A typical Android phone can come with 3 – 7 screens. You can slide your finger on the screen to move to the left or right screens. The icons you see at the main screen are the application launcher. In another word, they are shortcut to your applications, like Gmail, Calculator etc. We will discus more on applications later.

Other than the icons, there is also this thing call widget. Widgets are interactive apps that can update itself on the background and show information on the main screen. Example are the clock widget, weather widget, Facebook widget etc.

Adding Applications/widgets to the main screen

To add application to the main screen, press and hold your finger on an empty space on the screen. A window will popup, asking you what you want to add. Select Shortcut follow by Application. You can then select from the list of applications the app you want to place on the main screen. Using a similar method, you can also place widget on the main screen.

The application drawer

At the bottom center of the main screen, you will see an icon. When click, it will display the full list of the applications installed in your Android phone. This is akin to the Start menu in Windows, where you can view and launch apps. Every single application that you have installed can be found here.

The notification bar

The notification bar is the top most bar (that contain the time, battery status and signal strength). This is where all the notification are shown. Now, press your finger on the top most bar and drag it down. You will see that the notification bar start to open up. You can then view all notification in the list. To exit, either press the Back button or Home button.

The Buttons

Most, if not all, Android phone comes with four buttons: Back, Menu, Home, Search. The Back button is similar to the Back button in your browser. At any point of time, you can press the Back button to return to the previous page/settings/application etc. If you are typing with the onscreen keyboard, pressing the Back button will hide the keyboard.

The Home button is similar to the “Show Desktop” button in Windows. When you press the Home button, it will hide your existing app and bring you back to your main screen. You can press and hold the Home button to access your recently used apps.

The functionality of the Menu button is dynamic and will change depend on where you are. If you are at the main screen, pressing the Menu button allows you to change wallpaper, change system setting, show notification bar etc. Within an app, pressing the Menu button will show the options for the app. At any point of time, press and hold the Menu button will bring up the onscreen keyboard.

Lastly, the Search button allows you to perform a search. On the main screen, pressing the Search button allows you search anything in the phone (files, Web search, apps etc). When used within an app, the search button will search only within the app (and provided the app supports the search feature).

Configuring the phone settings

On the main screen, press the Menu button and tap on Setting. This will bring you to the settings page of the Android system. To turn on your wireless, go to “Wireless and Network” and tap Turn On.

There are plenty of settings over here, ranging from Wireless networks, Applications, Sound, Security, Display etc. Do take your time to go through each and everyone of the settings.

Installing apps from the market

Most, if not all, Android phones come with a Market application that you can use to install third-party apps. Open the Market app (you must be connected to the Internet). From here, you can browse the apps sorted in various categories such as Productivity, Games, Communication etc. Once you found the app you like, tap the Install button to install the app. It will then show you the access permissions requested by the app. Be sure to check the permissions thoroughly before tapping OK.

The app will proceed to install in your phone and notify you when it is done.

Apps come in two form: paid and free. Paid apps are only available in certain countries, so if you didn’t see any paid apps in your Market, don’t be panic. To pay for paid apps, you need to setup your Google Checkout account (it will probably support Paypal as well in the future).

Uninstalling apps

To uninstall apps, go to “Settings -> Applications -> Manage Application“. You will find a list of installed application here. Scroll to the application that you want to delete and tap on it. You will then be presented with a Uninstall button.

More resources for you:

• How to Create Shortcuts To Any Applications In Your Android Home Screen
• Launcher Pro + QuickDesk: Probably The Best Android Home Replacement Combination
• Protect And Secure Your Android Phone With Lookout Mobile Security
• 6 Beautiful Android Live Wallpapers to Make Your Phone Stand Out
• 18 Essential Apps For Your Android Phone

That’s it for now. We will be covering in more detail about Android. Do check back this site frequently for more update, or better still, subscribe to our RSS feed, newsletter or follow us at Facebook or Twitter.

For those who have read my review of Aptana and wish to install it in Ubuntu 8.10, here is how you can do so. While the installation is not as straightforward as it should be, the overall process is not that difficult either.

The instruction below is meant for 32-bit machine. If you are using a 64 bit machine, you’ll have to install Eclipse with the Aptana plugin.

1. Download Aptana for Linux

2. Unzip the Aptana tar file to your Home folder.

3. Install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin xulrunner

4. Open up a text editor and paste the following lines to the file.

#!/bin/bash
export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/lib/xulrunner
/home/damien/aptana/AptanaStudio  #filepath to Aptana folder

Change the filepath to the location where you place the Aptana folder. Save the file as runAptana.sh in the Aptana folder.

5. Right-click on the runAptana.sh file and select Properties. Go to the Permissions tab. Check the box “Allow executing file as program”

That’s it. Whenever you want to run Aptana, simply double click on the runAptana.sh file.

Creating Desktop and Menubar shortcut (Optional)

You can also create a shortcut on your desktop or the menubar so that you can easily access it when you want to use it.

- Right-click on the menubar and select Edit Menus

- On the left pane, scroll down till you find the Programming entry. Click on it.

- On the right, click on the “New Item” button. Enter the following:

For the Aptana icon, you can either use your own icon, or download the official iconset here

Close all the windows. You should be able to find the Aptana launcher in Applications->Programming->Aptana.

To create a desktop shortcut, simply drag the Aptana launcher from the menubar to the desktop. If you are using any dock applications, you can also drag and drop the launcher to the dock.

Didn’t I say it is easy?

While you can use the export/import function under the ‘Manage‘ menu to migrate your database over, it is definitely not the best and ideal solution, especially if you have a huge database. In addition, if any of your plugins created their own databases, they aren’t going to be migrated by the export/import function.

To migrate your WordPress blog, the best and the easiest way is to clone it and plug it into the new server. Since WordPress is a database driven platform where all its configuration settings are kept in the database, we can achieve a cloning effect simply by backing up all its database tables (including those created by the plugins) and dump it into the new server database. There is no need for reinstallation or reconfiguration.

Here’s how you can clone and migrate your WordPress blog to a new server in 10 steps:

1. Download the wp-db-backup plugin.
2. Upload to your existing server and activate it via the ‘Plugins‘ menu.
3. Go to the ‘Manage‘ -> ‘Backup‘ menu. Select all the tables (including those tables created by the plugins) and click the Backup button to download the gzip file to your computer.
4. In your computer, extract the gzip backup file. You should now have a sql file.
5. Open the sql file with a text editor. Search for the line

   INSERT INTO `wp_options` VALUES (1, 0, 'siteurl'

   You should see something of this format:

   INSERT INTO `wp_options` VALUES (1, 0, 'siteurl', 'http://www.your-old-url.com', 'yes')
   Replace the URL with your new server URL

   Next, search for the line

   INSERT INTO `wp_options` VALUES (39, 0, 'home',

   You should see
   INSERT INTO `wp_options` VALUES (39, 0, 'home', 'http://www.your-old-url.com', 'yes')
   Replace the url with your new URL. Save and exit.

6. Using a FTP program, download the whole WordPress folder from your current server to your computer. Keep the folder structure intact, especially the wp-content folder.
7. Log in to the PhpMyAdmin in the new server (here is the instruction to access your PhpMyAdmin)
8. Create a new database for your wordpress and import the sql file to the database
9. Change the database configuration in the wp-config file in the WordPress folder that you have downloaded
10. Upload the whole WordPress folder to the new server.

Done. You can now proceed to your wp-login page at the new server and login with the same username and password. All the configuration and settings will be the same as before.

If your WordPress database (the sql file you have created) is more than 2MB, the above method might not work since PhpMyAdmin only allows a maximum of 2MB file import.

To overcome this, you can use bigdump to dump the sql file to your new database.

1. Download the bigdump file from here (This is a customised version that I have modified to work with wordpress blog)
2. Unzip the file.
3. In the ‘restore‘ folder, open up config.php and change the database configuration.
4. Copy and paste the sql file into the folder.
5. Upload the ‘restore‘ folder to your new web URL
6. On your browser, navigate to the url http://your-new-web-url.com/restore/bigdump.php
7. Click on the “Start import” to import the sql file to the database
8. Once completed, upload the whole WordPress folder to your new web server.

Done.

Update: for GoDaddy, ‘localhost’ will not work. But any user can access their account, access the control panel for hosting products and then see SQL databases. When in edit mode, the page will display the hosting path – this worked. – Mike Chung.

Thanks to Mike Chung for the tips.