Installing Ubuntu in the VirtualBox Hypervisor

To install a hypervisor in Windows 11 and install Ubuntu, you follow these steps:

    1. Check your PC’s virtualization support: Before installing a hypervisor, make sure that your PC supports virtualization technology. To do this, you can check your PC’s BIOS or UEFI settings. Look for an option named “Virtualization Technology” or “Intel VT-x” and make sure that it’s enabled.  My observation is that PCs made after 2015 generally support virtualization.  Many older PCs do also.
    2. Download VirtualBox.

a. Go to the VirtualBox website (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads) and download the latest version of VirtualBox for Windows hosts.

b. Double-click on the downloaded file and follow the installation wizard to install VirtualBox on your PC.

    1. Download the Ubuntu ISO: Next, you need to download the Ubuntu ISO file from the official website (https://ubuntu.com/download). Make sure to select the correct version for your system architecture (32-bit or 64-bit).
    2. Create a new virtual machine in VirtualBox: Once you have VirtualBox installed and the Ubuntu ISO downloaded, create a new virtual machine to install Ubuntu.

a. Open VirtualBox and click on the “New” button.

b. In the “Name and Operating System” window, give your virtual machine a name and select “Linux” as the type and “Ubuntu” as the version.

c. Choose the amount of RAM to allocate to the virtual machine. Ubuntu requires at least 2GB of RAM, but you can allocate more if your PC has enough.  I prefer at least 8GB but try to allocate 16GB in general.

d. Create a new virtual hard disk or select an existing one. Make sure to allocate enough storage space for your Ubuntu installation.

    1. Configure the virtual machine settings: Before installing Ubuntu, configure the virtual machine settings.

a. Select the newly created virtual machine and click on “Settings.”

b. In the “System” tab, make sure that “Enable EFI (special OSes only)” is checked.

c. In the “Storage” tab, click on the “Empty” CD/DVD drive and then click on the “Choose Virtual Optical Disk File” button.

d. Browse to the location where you saved the Ubuntu ISO file and select it.

    1. Install Ubuntu: With the virtual machine configured,  install Ubuntu.

a. Start the virtual machine and select “Install Ubuntu” from the boot menu.

b. Follow the Ubuntu installation wizard to install Ubuntu on the virtual machine. Choose to install Ubuntu alongside Windows or erase the disk and install Ubuntu only.

c. Once the installation is complete, restart the virtual machine and boot into Ubuntu.

7. Install updates to Ubuntu.  Open up Terminal after logging in and execute the following commands:

a. sudo apt-get update

b. sudo apt-get upgrade

 

Discount Coupons for IT Certifications

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ITExamVouchers offers discount certification exam test vouchers for CompTIA (A+, Network+, Security+), Microsoft (MCSE), Cisco (CCNA), and Microsoft Office Specialist certification tests.

These coupons can help with the cost of the exams in case you cannot get reimbursement from your employer.

PDF – Scanning Odd and Even Pages Simultaneously

I have often found myself in a situation where I needed to scan several pages of a book – both odd and even.  However, I want my PDF file to only have one page from the book on each PDF page.  This post describes how to do this with Adobe Acrobat 9.5 under Windows 7.

Install Script to Duplicate all Pages of a PDF

Save the following code snipet to a file called DuplicateAll.js in the Acrobat folder that contains user defined scripts.  On Windows 7, this is:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\Javascripts

app.addMenuItem({
        cExec: "duplicate_all_pages();",
        cParent: "Edit",
        cName: "Duplicate all pages"
});

function duplicate_all_pages() {
        var r = this.getPageBox();
        var w = r[2] - r[0];
        var h = r[1] - r[3];
        var oldD = this;
        var newD = app.newDoc({ nWidth: w, nHeight: h });
        var path = oldD.path.replace(oldD.documentFileName,"");
        for(var p=oldD.numPages-1; p>=0; p--) {
                pageFile = path+"page_"+p+".pdf";
                oldD.extractPages({ cPath: pageFile, nStart: p });
                newD.insertPages({ cPath: pageFile, nPage: -1 });
                newD.insertPages({ cPath: pageFile, nPage: -1 });
                //File.delete(pageFile);
        }
        return true;
}

A special thanks to http://branch14.org/snippets/duplicate_all_pages_in_acrobat.html for providing this code!

Scan Open Book Pages and Save as a PDF

Open the book, place it face down on the scanner, and scan odd and even pages of the book at the same time.  Then, open the resulting PDF in Adobe Acrobat.

Crop and Split Pages

Go to the Edit menu and choose “Duplicate all pages”.  This option should be the last option on the menu.

Now, look at the first page of the PDF.  The odd page number from the book will be on the left hand side.  Crop out the page as shown in the example below:

1

Note that this should be applied to all odd pages.

Finally, do the same thing for the even page numbers as shown in the example below:

 

2

Now, each page of the book will be on a separate page in the PDF file.

Reversing Page Order in Adobe Acrobat

Here is a very useful trick that I found today and want to share.

Create a file called “Reversepageorder.js” your Acrobat Javascipt Folder (C:Program FilesAdobeAcrobat 9.0AcrobatJavascripts).  Put the following in it:

app.addMenuItem({ cName: “Reverse”, cParent: “Document”, cExec: “PPReversePages();”, cEnable: “event.rc = (event.target != null);”, nPos: 0

});
function PPReversePages()
{
var t = app.thermometer;
t.duration = this.numPages;
t.begin();
for (i = this.numPages – 1; i >= 0; i–)
{
t.value = (i-this.numPages)*-1;
this.movePage(i);
t.text = ‘Moving page ‘ + (i + 1);
}
t.end();
}// JavaScript Document

 

Restart Acrobat.

The Reverse option will be under the Document menu.

Creating an Image with Transparent Parts

If an image has transparent parts, some browsers will ignore them.  But, creating images with transparent parts is useful when making a collage or when creating a Visio diagram with embedded images.  Here is how to create an image with transparent parts using GIMP:

  • Install GIMP, if necessary.  Here is a link to the Windows installer for GIMP 2.8.2
  • Open the image, or copy/paste it into GIMP.  If it is copied in, save it before proceeding.
  • Choose the Layer -> Add Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel menu.
  • Click on the Fuzzy Select Tool icon:
Fuzzy Select Tool

 

  • Click on the area of the image that you want to be transparent.  Note that the area of the image that you want to be transparent must have a fairly uniform color.
  • Press Delete.
  • Repeat until you have removed all of the areas of the image that you want to be transparent.
  • Choose the File -> Export menu.
  • Save the file as *.png