As a follow up to our seamless Ubuntu in Windows tutorials, we’re going to show you how to sync a Windows (host) folder to a folder in the Ubuntu (guest). You’ll need to have guest additions installed on the guest OS for this one.

For this tutorial we’ll be syncing the H: drive on Windows (yours will probably be C:) with /home/jason/windows in Ubuntu.

Create a New Share

When you boot up into Ubuntu, do not switch to Seamless Mode just yet. Right click the blue folder icon at the bottom right hand corner.

The Shared Folders dialog will popup. Click the folder icon with the plus sign to add a new share.

Browse for a folder using the yellow folder icon next to Folder Path. I chose the location of my Windows installation, H:.

VirtualBox will then automatically fill the Folder Name, which you can change if you don’t like it. I kept the default. Make sure Make Permanent is checked. Click OK.

Mount the Share in Ubuntu

You can switch to seamless mode if you want now.

Open up Terminal (Applications → Accessories → Terminal). You’ll default automatically to your home folder. For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to mount the Windows drive inside your home folder.

Type the following to create a windows directory:

mkdir windows

You’ll have created /home/YOUR_USERNAME/windows

To mount your new drive, type the following:

sudo mount -t vboxsf YOUR_SHARE_NAME_GOES_HERE /home/YOUR_USERNAME/windows

For example, I’d type:

sudo mount -t vboxsf H_DRIVE /home/jason/windows

That’s about it to syncing a folder on your host Windows machine to an Ubuntu guest. If you have any question, direct them to the comments section below.

In this tutorial we’re going to explain the setup of the Synergy server on Ubuntu. If you haven’t already installed it, open Terminal and type the following:

sudo apt-get install synergy

Configuration

Synergy will be installed, but there’s no graphical interface for configuring the configuration file. We’ll help you configure the server.

gksudo gedit /home/your_username/.synergy.conf

We’ll need the names of the computers that will be connecting (the name of the current computer which will act as the server and any client computers). Type the following:

section: screens
	server:
	client:
end

Add more screens as necessary. In this example setup, server will be to the left of client.

section: links
	server:
		right = client
	client:
		left = server
end

The server: section designates that the entire right side of server will go to client. The client: section designates that the entire left side of client will go to server.

If you have a more complex setup of computers, the official configuration manual might help. The manual describes a situation where “moe” is to the right of “larry” and “curly” is on top of both screens.

Starting the Server

Starting the server is simple. Head to the terminal, and type:

synergys

Clients will now be able to connect to the server.

Entertainer is a relatively new media center for Gnome and XFCE desktops, currently at version 0.1 as of this writing. This tutorial will focus on the installation of Entertainer on Ubuntu with as little command line use as possible. If you’re comfortable with the command line, this tutorial should suffice. We’ll assume you’ve downloaded the tar.gz from the Entertainer website.

Extract Entertainer

We’ve saved the .tar.gz to /home/jason.

Right click the .tar.gz and hit Extract Here. You should have a new folder called entertainer-0.1.

Install Dependencies

We’ll need to install some files before we’re able to run Entertainer. Copy and paste the following into the Terminal (no changes needed):

sudo apt-get install python-gobject python-gtk2 python-gst0.10 python-clutter \
python-pysqlite2 python-cddb python-glade2 python-cairo python-feedparser \
python-pyinotify python-eyed3 python-pyvorbis python-imaging python-imdbpy \
python-notify

Hit Enter, and enter your password. Wait for all the files to be downloaded and installed (when it’s finished you’ll be able to execute commands again). Close the Terminal.

Setup Entertainer

Head into your entertainer-0.1 directory, then head into the src folder.

Double click the entertainer-content-management.py file, and click Run.

Click an applicable tab. We chose Music. Click Add, and choose a folder where you keep music files. Do the same with Videos, Images, and you can configure RSS feeds and Weather if you wish. When you’re done, click Close.

Start Entertainer

Double click entertainer-backend.py, and choose Run. Now double click entertainer-frontend.py, and choose Run. If all went well, the program should start. Direct any questions to the comments section below.

Hit System, Administration, then Login Window.

Go to the Security tab, check the Enable Automatic Login, and select your user name from the list. That’s it. When your system loads up it should head automatically to the desktop.

Regular boring tutorial with pictures follows ahead.

Move Your Picture to the Wallpaper Folder

Right click your picture, and hit Cut (or alternatively drag and drop it into the folder in the next step).

Head over to C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper and right click on a spot and select Paste.

You are pointing out Vista’s flaws. Cancel or Allow?

- UAC Prompt in Mac Ad

Click Continue, then authorize it.

Select your picture, then add an appropriate tag. Then hit Save.

Head over to the Wallpaper dialog, and see the results of your work. This tutorial originally posted by Sean.

One of the features included with Windows Vista was speech recognition, a supposed feature that would revolutionize how we use computers:

We totally believe speech recognition will go mainstream somewhere over the next decade.

- Bill Gates, Sept. 2005 (view more quotes here)

This tutorial will show you how to install speech recognition for XP using the Microsoft Speech SDK. If you’ve got a copy of Office XP or 2003 handy, please follow this tutorial on Microsoft’s website.

For everyone else, please download the Microsoft Speech SDK here (see picture above for correct file).

Extracting the Speech SDK

The file you download is an executable zip file. Double click it, and tell it a path to extract to. We chose \My Documents\Downloads\speech.

Head into the folder you extracted the files to, and double click setup.exe.

Installation of the Speech SDK

It’s a pretty standard installation, but for your convenience we’ve put a picture tutorial below.

Click Next.

Accept the license agreement (unless you don’t), then click Next.

Optional. Just click Next if you’d like.

Keep the default, unless you dislike it. Click Next. The installation will start, and show you a finish screen when you’re done.

When it’s done, head to the Control Panel and double click on Speech. You’ll be greeted with the Speech Recognition dialog. Before you can start using Speech Recognition, click Train Profile.

Once you’re finished training your profile, head back to the Control Panel and double-click Regional and Language Options. Click the Language tab. Click Details. Verify that Speech Recognition is listed under English.

Click the Language Bar… under Preferences. Make sure the language bar is set to display on the desktop.

Click the Advanced tab, and make sure Extend support of advanced text services to all programs is checked. Click OK.

Once you’re done, a language bar should appear and you should be able to hit Speech to enable it. Unforutunately, speech recognition does not appear to be as full featured as within Vista. In a future post we’ll show you how to make the best of XP speech recognition.

Click into the screen so that VirtualBox tells you that you’re now controlling it. Select your language. (We’re assuming English)

Select Install Ubuntu, unless you’d like to try it inside a tiny window. You’ll be shown a little progress bar, and it’ll load up to an orange/brown desktop with a bird on it.

Select the language again. Yes, it’s redundant. Click Forward.

Select your location for timezone purposes. I live on the Pacific coast, so I choose Los Angeles. Click Forward.

Pick a keyboard layout. I’m fine with the defaults. Click Forward once you’re done.

Ubuntu will prepare a partitioner. Since this is a virtual machine, and you’re using an empty virtual disk, just use the entire disk.

If you’re not using a virtual machine, we recommend learning what you’re doing before taking action.

Click Forward when you’re done.

Ubuntu will prompt you for some details (your name, username for logging in, password, and name of the computer). Once you’re done, press Forward.

At the end, Ubuntu will show you everything and ask for confirmation before installing. Satisfied? Click Install.

Ubuntu will proceed to install. This will take some time, so get up and do something. At the end, Ubuntu will prompt to restart. Follow all onscreen directives and the virtual machine will reboot. At this point, you can move on to part 3, where we tell you how to make it seamless with Windows.

Login to Ubuntu

Login to Ubuntu as soon as it starts.

Setup Guest Additions

In the window with Ubuntu in it, click Devices → Install Guest Additions…

These guest additions will allow you to select seamless mode. A window should popup with the CD contents. If not, check that the correct CD is mounted in Places. (If it’s the Ubuntu CD, shut down, and reconfigure the mounted CD to use the Guest Additions.)

Open Terminal (Applications → Accessories → Terminal). It’s a command line interface, but it’ll be easy.

We’ll need to switch to the CD directory. Type the following:

cd /media/cdrom0

Then type the following to install Guest additions:

sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Ubuntu will prompt you for your password. It will not show up (no asterisks, no plain text). Hit Enter after that, and the installation should run.

You should see a screen like the above. Restart, as directed.

Once you login again and it loads up the desktop, click Machine → Seamless Mode. You’re done! If you want, you can reconfigure the panels (taskbars) to complement your Windows desktop. There’s a few quirks here and there, but for the most part it works well.

Note: After we updated, we had to reconfigure the guest additions.

For this tutorial, we suggest you have at least 8GB free space and at least 1GB of RAM. You’ll need to have downloaded the Ubuntu ISO file and VirtualBox. We assume you have installed VirtualBox.

This is going to be a long tutorial, but we hope we’re positive we’ve made it easy to follow with an abundance of screenshots. However, some settings may need to be changed to reflect your computer setup.

Oh, and as a big huge tutorial, we’ve split it into 3 parts: this current part, which describes setup of the virtual machine, part 2 for installing Ubuntu, and part 3 for configuring it to become seamless.

Creating a New Virtual Machine

Open up VirtualBox. Click the button that says New.

The Create New Virtual Machine wizard will appear. Click Next to the welcome screen, and type in a Name (we chose Ubuntu) and select Ubuntu for OS Type. Click Next.

You’ll have to select the amount of RAM. About half the RAM you have is a good idea, so 512MB for systems with 1GB of RAM should suffice. We chose 700MB (we have 2GB of RAM). Click Next.

The wizard will tell you to select a virtual hard disk. Since we’ve assumed you’ve never used VirtualBox before, we need to create a new one. Click New…

The Create New Virtual Disk Wizard

The Welcome screen for the Create New Virtual Disk wizard. Click Next.

You’ll be asked to select a type of virtual hard disk image. For purposes of “I want it done now,” I chose the dynamically expanding image. Choose one or the other, and click Next.

Select a size for the virtual disk. I kept the default of 8GB. Then choose a name. I chose Ubuntu. Click Next.

The wizard gives you details of what you chose. If you’re satisfied, click Finish.

Back to the Virtual Machine Wizard

Back in the Virtual Machine wizard, pick the virtual hard disk you just created and click Next.

You’re done. Click Finish. We’re now going to configure some important settings for the virtual machine.

Configuring Settings

Right-click on your new Ubuntu virtual machine, and click Settings.

Click CD/DVD-ROM. Check the Mount CD/DVD Drive, then select ISO Image File. Click the yellow folder button next to the ISO Image File field.

We’re doing this so when you boot the machine, you can boot into the Ubuntu install CD (Ubuntu does NOT come pre-installed on the virtual machine).

You’ll come to the Virtual Disk Manager. Click Add.

Select the Ubuntu desktop install ISO you have. If you don’t, download it.

Select the new Ubuntu CD in the window, and click OK.

Enabling Sound

Back in the settings pane, choose Audio. For Host Audio Driver, select Windows DirectSound. Click OK on the settings window.

Back in the main VirtualBox window, select Ubuntu and click Start. Follow into part 2 for information on installing Ubuntu on your new virtual machine.