Install Chrome on Arch Linux

In this post, I will cover the installation of Google Chrome on Arch Linux or another distribution that doesn't use .rpm or .deb package management. (You can use a Google Chrome .rpm on Mageia or PCLinuxOS. You can use a Google Chrome .deb on CrunchBang Linux or Solus OS. The .debs and .rpms are universal and can run on any distro with that package management, not just what the chrome download page lists.)

If you aren't running Arch but you are running another distribution that is tarball based, like Slackware or Gentoo, refer to your distro's wiki. As for the BSD's the only way to run chrome is in wine. (Or of course you can use Chromium.)

Instructions for Slackware, other Slack based, like Vector:
http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:software:google-chrome

Instructions for Gentoo, other Gentoo based, like Sabayon:
http://blog.andreaolivato.net/open-source/google-chrome-natively-running-on-gentoo-linux.html

Arch Instructions will be covered here, more info can be found on the Arch Wiki:
http://wiki.archlinux.org

Okay lets begin.

First off, this works for any Arch Based Distro, for me I was using Manjaro.

First of all you'll need yaourt. Yaourt is a package that allows you to install packages over the AUR, and Google Chrome is one of those packages in the AUR. (AUR means Arch User Repository.) So to get yaourt you can initiate this command as root:

[someone@example-machine~$ su]
[Password: (Enter Password Here)]
[root@example-machine~# pacman -S yaourt.]

Now exit the su session and run yaourt with sudo (It's safer than running directly as root.)

you need to run this

[someone@example-machine~$ sudo yaourt google-chrome]

After a few seconds (Depending on your net speed.) it should return with these options:

google-chrome-stable

google-chrome-beta

google-chrome-dev

google-chrome-moonlight-plugin

now simply select option 1 which is chrome, it also would be smart to select option 4, the moonlight plugin, for extra features:

After that it will build chrome for you and then install it like it would normally install in a pacman session.

All you have to do now is look for Google Chrome in your app launcher. (On KDE open the kickoff or homerun launcher (If you're running KDE 4.10) and search chrome, on XFCE it's in Applications Menu>Internet>Google Chrome, In Lxde it's in Menu>Internet>Google Chrome In GNOME Shell (ew...) its in... well... you better search it due to the GNOME Team removing categories. >:()

Here's a link to chrome in the AUR:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/google-chrome/

Now some snapshots of Chrome on Arch:

Current Project: Create The Ultimate Harvest Moon OST Collection :D

I have been a fan of the Harvest Moon series for a long time, but something better than the game-play of the series is the soundtrack Harvest Moon is known to have. My new mission. Create the ultimate Harvest Moon OST repository for everyone to have. I plan to add as many games as possible to the collection, in fact I hope to add all of the games to the collection, from the first game on the SNES, every game in between, and the latest game on the 3DS A New Beginning. This is my summer project, and once it is complete I will put up a .zip file for download. Every time a new game comes out I will update the file. I do expect that this will become a 3-4 GB file, so expect a long download time, and I also would recommend if you're going to put this on a Mobile device like an Android Device or iDevice, that your device is at least 32 GB, in capacity, or more, as 4GB of music on a 16 GB device is actually not that good for the device. Apple and Microsoft currently have 128GB tablets out, but android's max capacity at the moment is 64 GB from the devices I've seen. If there is a 128GB android device out there floating around let me know. Also if you would like to contribute to this project by providing files let me know in the comments. This announcement will also be on my YouTube channel. When this is complete this will be on my Microsoft Sky-drive as that is my largest cloud with 7GB of space. If it is less than 2GB though it will be on my Dropbox or Google drive. I have a lot of cloud accounts.

Debian 7 release date "4th or 5th of May"

Debian 7 has gotten an official-ish release date. It is expected to hit the scene on the fourth or fifth of May 2013. It is unknown if this will change, however the wiki has announced the release parties around the world. There is one in New York NY, and There is one in Portland OR, both of which are picnics. So if you're in America, and live in New York City or Portland Oregon you can attend the parties celebrating Debian 7's release. Moving on to what is expected with Debian 7...

In Debian 7, we are expecting the GNOME 3.4 Desktop, the KDE 4.8 desktop, the Xfce 4.8 desktop, and we should also expect to see Linux Kernel 3.2 which has a lot more hardware support than the older 2.6 Kernel had. We will also see the introduction of GCC+ 4.8 and some cloud components like a new version of OpenStack and Samba4, as well as a newer MySQL, which means good news for servers or desktops that are connected to the cloud. Also the most important thing for WPA and WPA2 encrypted networks... We have WPA support built into the installer as well as WPA supplicant right out of the box. These are all the major improvements of Debian 7. As always if you have any ideas or remarks please leave a comment below. That's all for now, this is Craig saying good night.

Easy Way to install Minecraft In Linux.

For those of you who don't know how to make a launcher it's pretty easy. All you need is a program called Alacarte. Alacarte allows you to create a launcher via the GUI. To get Alacarte:
Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install alacarte
Fedora
su
yum install alacarte
SUSE
su
zypper install alacarte
Arch
su
pacman -S alacarte
Other distributions
Refer to your distributions Wiki.


In alacarte (Based on the version of GNOME you are running, you should see something like this.):

Select Games and you should see something similar to this.

The "proper" category of games Minecraft falls under is constantly disputed between a simulation, action, arcade, falling block, kids, role playing, or adventure. I put mine in adventure but remember that you can put yours wherever you want. (That's the freedom of Linux.)

Once you pick a category all you need to do is click on new item, and it will open a new item window. In name put Minecraft. For the Icon look find the Minecraft Grass block on Google which is the default icon of Minecraft. For execute you need the minecraft.jar or minecraftsp.jar if you're a dirty little software pirate. Then in execute put java -jar path to jar file replacing path to with where you saved the jar, and replacing jar file with the name of the jar file. Example

Exec= java -jar /home/craig/Downloads/minecraft.jar

Obviously this will be different for you based on your user name and home directory. Add a comment if you wish, restart the shell, and your done.

As always if you have an idea please leave a comment below.

Swearing as a moderator or author.

I have created this post to let authors and moderators of the blog know that I permit swearing to you guys on a very very limited basis. If you are an author or moderator writing a post, the maximum swears in the post I will allow is 5. If you go over that 1 time you get a warning. If you go over that twice, you get a suspension for 24 hours. If you go over that 3 times you loose your moderator or author status and are subject to punishment that the rest of the community faces for breaking guideline number 1. When it is okay to swear in a post is when you are writing something like a rage at Microsoft or a rant review. Otherwise please try to refrain from that if the post doesn't involve a rant or rage. Swearing in comments is okay on a limited basis (Again 5 swears in one comment per post.) So for example if you agree with a post titled "Why Microsoft is a bullshit company that should die in a hole." You could respond with "Couldn't agree more! I mean this activation shit? That's a fucking invasion of privacy." That's okay on a limited basis as long as you only post one comment with swears and it has no more than five swears. Once you post a swear in a comment (Even if you didn't post five.) You can't write swears in another comment on that post. If all that is understood then you shouldn't have many issues. These guidelines go for chatrooms as well however you may use 10 swears per visit on the chat rooms. I have a link to this post on the chat room pages.

Poll! Should Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 ship with GNOME 3.10, 3.8, or 3.6?

With the release of Ubuntu GNOME 13.04 we saw that it shipped with GNOME 3.6 instead of GNOME 3.8. The reason that the standard Ubuntu didn't ship with GNOME 3.8 was because GNOME 3.8 got rid of GNOME-panel and GNOME-Fallback, which Unity makes use of. However Ubuntu GNOME 13.04 could have shipped with 3.8, but they chose to ship the latest iteration of Ubuntu GNOME with GNOME 3.6, which, for those who want stability, is a good thing, BUT if you want the latest and greatest, you had work ahead of you. What you needed to do was add the GNOME 3 team PPA and the GNOME 3 team-staging PPA to update to the latest and greatest. And now that development for Ubuntu 13.10 has begun I ask you this, should Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 ship with GNOME 3.10 (For latest and greatest) 3.8 (For stability) or 3.6 (For older stability.)
It's your choice, you may select one option.

Should Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 include GNOME 3.10, 3.8 or 3.6?

As always if you have another idea feel free to leave a comment.

The easiest way to sync an iDevice with Linux.

If you're like me, you use Linux but you have an iDevice such as an iPod Touch then you know you have issues getting it to work properly. This method I discovered doesn't even require the sync cable. So that means no more nasty fuse drivers on you're Linux system, as for this loophole all you need is a working internet connection, and, a cloud service of your choice be it Dropbox, Ubuntu One, Google Drive, Box, Owncloud, or any other cloud service out there, just as long as the cloud service you choose has an iOS app, you're set.

So now you're probably asking, "how do I preform this loophole?" Well, I will tell you how it worked for me, and, how it should work for you. If you already have an existing Cloud Service account, (For this example we will use Dropbox.) all you need to do is go to that cloud service's website and download the app. So if you have a Dropbox account like most people do, all you have to do is head over to the Dropbox website and download the Dropbox sync-client for Linux, A.K.A. dropbox-nautilus-extension (No it's not just for nautilus, even though it's in the name of the package. I've run it on Dolphin, Marlin, Nemo, Thunar, PCManFM, Caja, and the Enlightenment file manager.)

After downloading and installing dropbox all you have to do is drag you're entire music library to the dropbox folder. Please do note here that dropbox for free only gives you 2GB of storage, and though you can get more from free offers like sharing it with your pals on Facebook and Twitter, or *gulp* surveys, If you have a 20 GB Library of music, it flat out won't work with the free account unless you have a lot of social networking accounts or unless you are a survey addict. I take no responsibility if you fill up your Dropbox in one move.

After dragging the Music folder into the Dropbox folder all you have to do now is get the dropbox app for your iDevice. Once that is installed the next thing you have to do is run the dropbox app and navigate to where you saved your music, (Pro tip: Create a music folder in the dropbox folder and put all the files from your local music folder to the cloud music folder.)  and simply tap it and it should begin playing. That's it. You can now sync music between your iDevice and your computer. Note that this isn't limited to music. You can sync pictures and videos this way as well. Just note that only pictures can be saved locally to your iDevice, which brings us to the pros and cons of this procedure.

Pros to this procedure
Easiest way I know of to sync an iDevice in Linux
Free (Unless you choose a monthly subscription for more storage, for example a 1TB package on Dropbox. Yes Dropbox has that option.)

Cons to this procedure
You need internet acess if you are doing this via an iPod or Wi-Fi only iPad. If you have a 4G iPhone or a 4G iPad this shouldn't be a problem as you can pull up your music on the go. Hopefully the Dropbox team adds the ability to download media files locally to an iDevice.
Expensive (Only if you're paying for crazy amounts of storage, like 1TB.)

Overall this is the best loophole I have found for getting an iDevice to work on any Linux Distro. (You can run Dropbox on any Linux distro now as you just download the tarball if you're not using Ubuntu, Debian, or Fedora.) If you know of a way to sync an iPod with music locally please do tell me in the comments below. If you have any trouble ask me!

Obviously though if you're a Linux user like me it may be better to use an Android device. So what do you think? Would you use this procedure? Or would you rather buy an Android phone or tablet? Again, let me know in the comments below?