Patrick Micka

As a relatively new Linux/Ubuntu user I’ve had my fair share of complications trying to figure things out. Despite the wide variety of wonderful graphical user interface (GUI) tools available to us as Linux users, getting things done through a command line interface (CLI) in the terminal is sometimes the only option to. On one hand, it can be a very rewarding accomplishment, on the other, it can also be a very frustrating roadblock to getting anything done if you are not comfortable interacting with your computer in the mystic realm of text based commands.

If you’ve been using Ubuntu/Linux for any time at all you’ve probably noticed that most tutorials, including the one I posted a little while ago, are usually only composed of terminal commands. You may find yourself avoiding the terminal if you don’t have much experience with it. Unfortunately, your Ubuntu/Linux experience will inevitably suffer as you avoid trying new things. Understanding that the CLI is a powerful working environment in Linux, although not the only one, is important and will help you to get the most out of your experience. That is not to say that you should mercilessly abandon the intuitive visualization that GUIs provide, but rather, nurture your understanding of both environments.

To help get over any insecurities you may have using the terminal, aside from jumping in head-first, I suggest installing a fun little program called DOSBox. DOSBox is an open source MS-DOS emulator used for older computer games and should provide you with a fun and easy way to become more comfortable with text-based commands. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for an easy way to play DOS games, this program is available for Windows and Mac as well.

To install DOSBox enter the following command in the terminal window:

sudo apt-get install -y dosbox

However, if you’re really not comfortable at all with the terminal, the same program can be installed through the Synaptic Package Manager located in the Administration menu (Settings > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager). Just do a search for dosbox and mark it for installation.

After you’ve installed DOSBox you’re going to need a directory to store all of your DOS games. Create it by running the following command in the terminal:

mkdir ~/DOS/

Move any DOS game files/folders you have to that directory and then start DOSBox by typing dosbox in the terminal. Now you’re almost ready to ford that river!

Next, to make the directory your created earlier accessible to DOSBox type the following command in the DOSBox CLI:

mount c ~/DOS/

You can move to the C drive, which you’ve just mounted, by running:

C:

Finally, to launch a game you have to navigate to the executable file which corresponds to that game by entering:

\somedirectory\somegame.exe

Remember, the Windows naming convention uses a backslash to separate directory and filenames as opposed to regular slashes, or forward-slashes, as you will use in Linux.

If you don’t have any DOS games at hand, they can usually be found around the net by practicing a little google-fu. Lastly, don’t be afraid of trying new things, there are plenty of cheat sheets floating around to help you figure out what that command you just entered should have done.

Twhirl is a popular desktop twitter client based on the Adobe AIR platform. Unfortunately, up until recently, Linux users have been unable to easily install the application because an official AIR release was not available and running it through Wine took away much of the platforms appeal. However, Adobe Labs recently released an alpha version of the AIR platform for Linux. Follow these simple instructions to install it.

Download the bin file to your Desktop:

cd ~/Desktop

wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/air/linux/adobeair_linux_a1_033108.bin

Give the bin file execution rights:

chmod +x adobeair_linux_a1_033108.bin

Run the bin file to install AIR:

sudo ./adobeair_linux_a1_033108.bin

Note: If you receive the error “sudo: unable to execute ./adobeair_linux” or “sudo: ./adobeair_linux_a1_033108.bin: command not found” the terminal is telling you that the file is not executable, you may have incorrectly performed the previous command.

Once that’s installed, it’s time to get twhirl. As of this posting the twhirl website wont allow Linux users to click the “Get twhirl” link, simply displaying the message “Adobe AIR is not available for your system”. You can get around this by entering the following command in the terminal to download the file directly:

wget http://www.twhirl.org/files/twhirl-0.8.1.air

Be sure to modify the file name to fit the most current release of twhirl.

Next, right click the file and select the Open with “Adobe AIR Application Installer” option to run the installer. That should get everything installed. The screenshot below illustrates how well it integrates with the system.

One thing I noticed after installing was that it only displayed a generic icon when running. If you run into the same problem feel free to download and use an icon I created, which can be found here.

UPDATE:

The folder containing the stock icons was /opt/twhirl/icons