When i installed ubuntu in my machine, ubuntu did not ask for any root password from me. It asked for a user name & password, which i gave during installation, and everything is finised.

When i ran synaptic package manager, the problem started as it asked for root password which i dont know. After some wierd search & breaking of my head, i finally found that my own user has all admin facilities and then changed the password for the root.

Later i came to know from an article that ubuntu generates its password randomly. Whether its a flaw or is it intended to be like that… i dont know..

Often, the packages that we get from magazine CD are in rpm format.  While ubuntu is based on the debian Linux, and hence, it requires Debian package for installing. (.deb).  What can we do with those rpm packages?

Now, a tool called “alien” comes to our rescue. After this alien is installed, we can convert the rpm package in to .deb package, to be installed in linux.

The best way to install alien is from either synaptic package manager or from apt-get tool in the command line. Because, there are lot of dependancies for alien, and i faced lot of difficulties in installing it from the download.

so, using apt-get, it can be installed from the following command.

# apt-get install alien

All the dependencey problem would be taken care of by apt-get installer.

How to convert the rpm package to debian package?

To convert the rpm package to debian package,

#sudo alien -d <package.rpm>

the .deb package will be created in the current working directory.

I was having three operating system in my machine in two hard disks, 1. winXP, fc3 & ubuntu 6.06. while XP & fedora is in Secondary Master(hdc), ubuntu was installed in secondary slave(hdd).

The problem is that ubuntu installed its own GRUB loader in the MBR (of hdc). Since my fedora is crashing often, i decided to re-install it again with minimal set of programs (Desktop edition). During re-installation, it failed to recognize ubuntu GRUB loader, and i chose to install a new grub of fedora, hoping that grub would detect all OS.

But, contrary to my expectation, grub failed miserably. Grub error came on booting.
I again booted in win2000 cd, and restored the MBR using the follwowing command.

C:\WINNT> FIXMBR

it restored windows partition and i was able to use it.

Then I searched in the NET and got to know that i can restore my ubuntu grub by the grub commands.

1. Just boot from Live CD. (choose safe mode, if normal boot up doesnt happen)

2.After bootup, run the following commands in terminal.

for starting grub

#sudo grub

to search for any existing partitions.

#find /vmlinuz

set the root partition for the grub.
#root (hd0,1)

Setup the grub. Chose the same harddisk for grub install, which you have used during installation.

# setup (hd0)
I got back all my partitions back and successfully restored my sytem.