Is your computer releasing too much Heat???

Many people experience the problem of overheating in the room where the computer is kept due to the heat released from the system.This is not a much discussed issue,because people believe that the only solution is to keep an air-conditioner in the room,nothing else.Also in most offices and rich homes there are a/c’s to keep the room cool,so this never occurs to them.But what about others?Did you know that overheating slowly kills your computer by degrading its parts?Before i too,like many of you people,thought that it was a problem i had to suffice,until i found something.

I’m using an AMD processor in my system.The motherboard CD had a software in it called- AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet.My brother installed it and found out its use.The software had the capability to minimize the frequency to an optimum level.Thus whenever you are not running any heavy applications,the processor would be like in a resting state,running at a minimal frequency.While running heavy applications the processor would operate according to the need.You can monitor the frequency on the screen.The advantage of this software is the lesser heating of the system.The change is very evident and you’ll notice it very fast.

The only problem i had was that Cool ‘n’ Quiet was designed for Xp only,and i was using Debian etch.It is then,that i found this link,which proved to be really helpful-

http://technowizah.com/2007/01/debian-how-to-cpu-frequency-management.html

There is also another advantage,which i forgot to mention;due to low frequency,the whirring noise from the processor is reduced by a great factor.If you are a computer user,specially one who uses it for longer durations,i suggest you go for some software like Cool ‘n’ Quiet.

Virtual Machine

Many of you linux users might be afraid of working or rather experimenting on linux because of the fear of kernal panic and the system hanging.Also sometimes it becomes necessary to log off or restart the system when working with the OS.And it becomes necessary to close all programs that you maybe running.If you need a more safer way to work the answer is – Virtual Machine!

For those who do not know,Virtual Machine is an application program just like any other, that helps us to simulate any operating systems like Windows,Linux,etc.It allows us to install a new operating system(OS) within our old OS.Thus we could test out any OS and do not have to worry about a crash.We could try out various installation procedures of any OS,without any hardware damage or we could even try editing the OS source code and running it without any fear becoz Virtual Machine applications provide a backup option allowing us to save the machine’s state before attempting anything risky.Before installing any OS it is necessary to create a virtual disk which acts as the secondary memory for the virtual machine.Also we can decide how much RAM memory to be allotted to it.Any number of virtual machines can be created,you just need that much disk space to allot.

In Windows there are tools like VMware that helps us to set up a virtual machine(Just run a search in google;installation is easy).For Linux, one tool that I found helpful is Virtual Box.It has all necessary features for creating a new virtual machine.For downloading virtual box you will be redirected to Sun’s download site,from where you can download the software for your particular OS.After downloading,enter the root terminal and run the following command to install it(I’m using Debian so its a .deb package) :

dpkg -i virtualbox_1.6.2-31466_Debian_etch_i386.deb

After installation you will be able to run the software by simply typing the command :

Virtual Box

and hitting enter or you could select it from Applications -> System Tools -> Sun xVM VirtualBox .Although it will start you wouldnt be able to start using it and an error would come :

error!user not added to vboxusers (or somewhat like this)

To solve this problem simply type the command :

sudo adduser [username] vboxusers

and hit enter.Volla!Your software is ready to run.Have a go at it!!!

You might want to check out the options before you create any virtual machine to enable some features like hard disks,cd drives,usb ports,etc.

Enjoy!!

Making NTFS accessible in Debian

NTFS access was the biggest challenge I faced in debian.At first I could only access it via disk manager as root.Even so it was a read-only access.Then I learned to mount partitions using mount command(check -man mount- for details).Again this was a read-only access.I had to copy my favourite songs from ntfs to linux partition to play them or I had to keep my disk manager open and play from there itself.Something a newcomer to Linux would despise.I was fed up with this,and along with a strong discouragement from my brother(one who dislikes Linux) I was on the verge of quitting debian when I heard about “ntfs-3g”.

ntfs-3g is the utility used for mounting ntfs partitions with full access.Though I heard about it,I still wasnt sure how to use use it,also you needed another file libntfs3g0.Then I searched about it in Google and I found this link.There I followed some easy steps and volla!!, I had full ntfs access.Actually I’m listening to music from the ntfs partition while writing this.I feel Great!So,if any of you people out there, are still facing problems,try it out……………..