The feature freeze for Ubuntu 9.10 has been in effect for a while now, so it’s time for the next Ubuntu release to be announced. Mark Shuttleworth has done this speaking to UbuCon at the Atlanta Linux Fest. The video of the announcement is from YouTube is embedded below.

In the video the code name for Ubuntu 10.04 is revealed: “Lucid Lynx”. As this release fits into the two year long term support schedule, it will receive the LTS designation. A few details about what this version will entail are given in the video. Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid Lynx” will focus on GNOME 2 rather than GNOME 3, which will be adopted in subsequent releases. The server edition will focus on cloud computing and support for large scale web infrastructure.

Ubuntu 10.04 should be released in April 2010.

[update] Mark Shuttleworth has formally introduced Lucid Lynx in written form.

This guest article was written by Vivek Kumar from LinuxHub.net, a blog focused on Linux tutorials (how-to’s), technology and news.

One great advantage of using Linux (Ubuntu) is the fact that you don’t really have to worry about security and hence viruses. However, this does not mean that you should not use an anti-virus on your Ubuntu machine. Especially when you can get a good anit-virus for free. BitDefender for Unices is one such anti-virus solution for Linux and you can get it for free. Let’s see how to get a free license of BitDefender anti-virus for your Ubuntu machine and how to install it on your Ubuntu machine.

BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices is a versatile on-demand scanner built for Linux and FreeBSD systems. It provides antivirus and antispyware scanning for both UNIX-based and Windows-based partitions.

BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices is highly customizable and capable of script and extension-based integration with various applications such as file managers and mail clients.

Get a free home license for BitDefender
Before we download and install BitDefender on Ubuntu, let’s first get a free license copy of BitDefender. Please remember that the free copy of BitDefender is only for non-commercial home usage. In case you want to use it for business purpose please get a valid license. In order to request a free license go to the following page:
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/Products/ScannerLicense/

Fill in the information and accept the license agreement to get the license key to your email.

Download Free BitDefender Antivirus for Linux

1. On the following page, click download, enter your details to download the free BitDefender antivirus:
   http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-80-en–BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-for-Unices.html
2. Once you have filled the information the download link will be sent to your email address.
3. Click the download link that you received in your email and click BitDefender Antivirus scanner for Unices (Linux, FreeBSD).
4. On the next page click Download.
5. Click EN_FR_BR_RO/ and click Linux on the following page.
6. You’ll see many links on the page. Depending on the version of Linux and your OS (32 or 64 bit), you can download the files. In our case we’ll download the following file:
   BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-7.6-4.linux-gcc4x.i586.deb.run

This article was written by Blair Mathis. Blair works with Laptoplogic.com where she is responsible for all Linux/Ubuntu related articles. At Laptoplogic.com you can find all the information you need on the best gaming laptops and go through the latest Acer laptop reviews.

As always, the latest version of Ubuntu, 9.04, was released on time. It offers faster boot time, ext4 support, and many other minor updates and tweaks that makes the system better. Unfortunately, in addition to the updates, there’s a fairly serious (aka, annoying) bug in Ubuntu 9.04 that causes a certain combination of buttons–most commonly, the Fn+UP/DOWN and volume buttons—to render the keyboard completely dead, as well as the system menus and the right-click menu that appears when using the mouse. This bug appears in many different ways, as evidenced by the varying bug reports, but it always has the same symptoms.

While there’s no reported cause for the bug—only acknowledgement that it exists—users are forced to hard reset their system to correct the problem; restarting the X server is impossible, due to the lack of keyboard, and the system menus disappear, preventing a simple log in/log out fix.

Because a hard rest is not a viable option when using the system for work (or at all, for that matter), it would seem those plagued with this bug are forced to install 8.04 or temporarily abandon their system for a different one. Luckily, if you’re willing to stick it out for awhile until the coveted bug fix is released, there is a simple solution to unlocking the keyboard that does not involve a hard reset:

CTRL + ALT + F3

Or any other key F1-F12. The screen will temporarily turn black, and a system beep might occur, and then the keyboard and menus will continue working as normal. The buttons that trigger the bug will continue to act poorly, however.

If you’re experiencing their bug with your system, be sure to report it so that a solution can be found as quickly as possible.

Sun has just released the major 2.2 update to their VirtualBox virtualization software. The most exciting new feature in this release is 3D acceleration for Linux guest operating systems! See the changelog for all the new features and fixes.

Install VirtualBox
VirtualBox offers Ubuntu package downloads as well as a software repository from their Linux downloads page. Neither of these options have been updated for Ubuntu 9.04 yet, so I just downloaded and installed the 8.10 package for now.

Start VirtualBox from Applications->System Tools->Sun VirtualBox.

Install Guest Additions
Here’s how I installed the VirtualBox guest additions in an Ubuntu 9.04 guest. Start up your Ubuntu guest OS. In VirtualBox, click Devices->Install Guest Additions.

Click Run when the autorun prompt opens in the guest. The installation could take a minute while kernel modules are being built. When it’s finished, the installer should prompt you to reboot the guest.

In my previous post on installing Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu 9.04, I explained how to install Ubuntu’s firefox-3.5 package. As several commenters and I realized, this may not be the best solution. The package is branded Shiretoko instead of Firefox 3.5, including the user agent string which can cause compatibly problems with some websites.

Manually downloading and installing Firefox from Mozilla every time there is a security update is not a great option either. Instead, let’s use Ubuntuzilla, a script that can install and update Mozilla applications outside of Ubuntu’s repository system.

Ubuntuzilla can integrate the new version of Firefox into your system as well as undo its changes if you want to go back. All your extensions, bookmarks, plugins, and settings should transfer over to the new version. The only thing that didn’t transfer was my open tabs from my previous session.

1. Visit the Ubuntuzilla download page to find the latest deb package appropriate for your system (32 or 64-bit). Download and install the package.
2. At this point you should completely close Firefox.
3. You’ll need to use a terminal to let Ubuntuzilla guide you through the installation. Run this command to start:
   

   ubuntuzilla.py -a install -p firefox

Ubuntuzilla will ask a few questions: confirming that it has found the correct version to install, choosing a localization (14 for en-US), confirming the localization, a sudo prompt, and a prompt for enabling automatic updating.

4. Near the end of the process you should see The new Firefox version 3.5 has been installed successfully.

You can now use your normal Firefox item in the menu to start Firefox 3.5, or by running the command firefox. Check out Ubuntuzilla’s website for the simple removal instructions as well as what do do when you are notified there is a Firefox update available.

[update] Mozilla has released Firefox 3.5.1. I followed the instructions on Ubuntuzilla’s page to update to this new version.

I’ve come across two bugs so far in Firefox 3.5: clicking the middle mouse button anywhere on a page tries to load a URL from the clipboard (fixed using workaround), and fullscreen Flash video crashes Firefox (waiting for a fix or better workaround).

Firefox 3.5 (formerly known as 3.1) adds support for new web standards including audio and video tags and downloadable fonts, a private browsing mode, significantly improved JavaScript performance, and more.

Ubuntu will not be upgrading the default Firefox package to 3.5 until Ubuntu 9.10. However, the universe repository in Ubuntu 9.04 includes a special firefox-3.5 package. At the time of writing this package contains an old beta release. It should be updated soon, but here’s a workaround if you can’t wait any longer.

Update: I’m now recommending installing Firefox 3.5 using Ubuntuzilla rather than the methods described in this post.

Before you update, consider backing up your Firefox profile if you may want to go back to Firefox 3 after trying 3.5. Running the command below will backup your Firefox profile to firefox_profile_backup in your home directory. To restore from the backup, replace your.mozilla/firefox folder with the backup.

cp -r ~/.mozilla/firefox/ ~/firefox_profile_backup

Update: The firefox-3.5 package in Ubuntu 9.04 has now been updated, so it’s no longer necessary to use the Mozilla Security Team PPA.

Open the Synaptic package manager and select Settings->Repositories. Select the Third-Party Software tab and add the APT line for the Mozilla Security Team PPA, which has Firefox packages which are undergoing testing prior to wider release:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Return to the main Synaptic window and click the Reload button to download the repository listings. Find the firefox-3.5 package and mark it for installation. Click Apply to install.

After Synaptic is done working, you can remove or disable the Mozilla Security Team PPA if you don’t want to get any more untested updates.

Unfortunately, this package is still branded as Shiretoko (the codename for this Firefox release). Start Firefox 3.5 from Applications->Internet->Shiretoko Web Browser.

Google Earth puts the world’s geographic information at your fingertips. There’s a native Linux port of the latest version, Google Earth 5.

Here’s how you can easily install Google Earth on Ubuntu.

What good is having a large display if you’re constantly rearranging windows to fit them on the screen? I got tired of try to fit a web browser with other smaller windows and decided to try xmonad, a tiling window manager that could do this for me.

A tiling window manager arranges your windows in a grid. This maximizes window sizes and prevents any window from obscuring another.

Installing xmonad
xmonad is available from the Ubuntu repositories. Install xmonad from the package xmonad (click the link to install), or by running the command below in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install xmonad

A number of dependencies will be installed with xmonad. They are needed because reconfiguring xmonad requires recompiling it. (Don’t worry, this is handled automatically.)

I’d also highly recommend installing dmenu, a simple application launcher that integrates with xmonad. Install dmenu from the package dwm-tools (click the link to install), or by running the command below in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install dwm-tools

From the login screen, you should now be able to select an xmonad session and log in to start xmonad.

Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” is now available! Major new features in this release include:

• Boot performance has been improved, even without Ext4 you should notice a speedup.
• The slick new notification system is enabled.
• The latest version of the GNOME desktop environment is included.
• OpenOffice has been updated to version 3.0.
• Ext4 filesystems are now supported (but Ext3 is still the default for now).

If you’ve installed from an alpha, beta, or release candidate CD all you need to do is install any available updates to get the final release version. If you need a CD, be sure to use the Bit Torrent downloads.

Using the xmonad tiling window manger and looking for a way to keep track of your workspaces, the time, and more? This guide shows how you can set up dzen2 as a statusbar with state information from xmonad.

dzen2 is a general purpose statusbar; it can display anything you like from standard in and integrates easily with xmonad or your own scripts. dzen2 is even capable of displaying icons and advanced text formatting.

If you’re not familiar with xmonad and configuring it, see my post on getting started with xmonad on Ubuntu.

Install dzen2
Install dzen2 from the package dzen2 (click the link to install), or by running the command below in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install dzen2