My Interesting Ubuntu

Setup dual monitor

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 21:18:00 +0100

Currently I'm using Xubuntu as my default desktop. I didn't buy into the whole Unity interface and I find it much better on my netbook.

I found myself without a graphical option to set up dual monitor. So, I had to setup dual monitor from the command line. it really easy.

Type xrandr in the terminal

xrandr

You will see something like this:

And now that you see the monitors that are connected the the pc is as easy as to tell show what where

$ xrandr --output LVDS --left-of VGA-0

Note: You can change the --left-of to --right-of you you like

Now, if you want this setup every time you start you computer is just a matter of adding the command to the startup application menu

Sync Firefox addons using Dropbox

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Sat, 4 Feb 2012 21:10:00 GMT

I wanted to blog about this a while back but I've been to lazy to do so. I've done this a couple of month ago irritated on the fact that Firefox was unable to sync my addons across computers and I think it was a mistake on their part.

Anyway, this is very easy to do using Dropbox.

First close down Firefox and then go to:

~/.mozilla/firefox

You can use Nautilus for this, is probably faster and easier too. In there should be one folder for each user in Firefox. Go to the one you want to sync the addons with. Probably will be the one with "*.default" in it if you don't have any users in Firefox.

Within that folder will be another folder called:

extentions

Will be this folder the one we are going to sync. Cut this folder on place it in your Dropbox folder. I place mine in:

Dropbox/App_sync/Firefox

Once you pasted the folder in the right place, right click it and select

Make link

Now cut the link and place it on the folder where we got the original "extensions" folder. Once you placed it in the right place rename it with the original name and that's it.

The only drop back with this method is that Dropbox is not very good at syncing multiple computers at the same time. If you have multiple Firefox opened in different computers and start installing/removing addons at the same time it may give you a problem.

Change magnet links association in linux (Ubuntu)

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:53:00 GMT

The Pirate Bay soon will stop serving torrents and a while back I wrote about associating manget links with any torrent client, but that tutorial doesn't work anymore with the newest Ubuntu releases. So, now I'm going to show you how to change the file association so that it will work with any version of Ubuntu or many linux distrobutions.

I'm going to write this tip using ktorrent as it is my favorite torrent client, but if you are using a different client it shouldn't be to hard to change the step to suite your needs. Lets start.

First of all we are going to make sure that you torrent client associates magnet links.

We are going to edit the "*.desktop". They should be under:

/usr/share/applications

in my case because is a kde application it would be under:

/usr/share/applications/kde4

There should be the file we need to open and edit but instead of clicking at it. Open gedit and direct it to that location. You should see a bunch of "*.desktop" files. In my case I will open:

/usr/share/applications/kde4/ktorrent.desktop

In the file you look for the MymeType. You should see something like this:

MimeType=application/x-bittorrent;application/x-torrent;

Now, we will add the magnet association to the file by adding "x-scheme-handler/magnet;" at the end of the MymeType like so:

MimeType=application/x-bittorrent;application/x-torrent;x-scheme-handler/magnet;

Save and close the file. Now we are going to make the system to call the magnet handler we just created by changing/adding the file association. You can change it for each user or the system in general.

The file associations for each user are stored in:

sudo gedit ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

The system-wide file associations are stored in:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Now look for "x-scheme-handler/magnet", it may not be there but just make sure not to enter duplicates. Now add/edit this line for the handler to call the same "*.desktop" file we edited before. Because in my case the "ktorrent.desktop" file was under the kde4 folder I have to add it, but if you file was on the root of the "/usr/share/applications" there is no need to add anything. In my case it would look like so:

x-scheme-handler/magnet=kde4-ktorrent.desktop;

Save and close the file. Now, you should be able to open Magnet links with you favorite torrent client.

Create a Launcher manually for Unity

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:44:00 +0100

Today was the release of eclipse 3.7 code named Indigo. After installation I wanted a shortcut of the new eclipse on the launcher in Unity but every time I've tried the launcher would just called eclipse in the system which called the default eclipse in Ubuntu which is 3.5.

I wanted the shortcut to call my new eclipse I had installed under /opt. Here is how to:

$ gedit ~/.local/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

And enter the following in the file:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
Name=Eclipse Indigo 3.7
Exec=env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 /opt/eclipse/eclipse

And save the file. Hope this helps.

I got help from here

Enable DVD Playback

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:17:00 +0100

Not that I play DVD's very often but is always good to be able to play DVD's and every time that I've tried they never seemed to work in Ubuntu. I actually always thought it was a bug in Ubuntu and I never bothered to look to much into it (lazy) and always double booted into Windows to play my DVD's as I always thought this was the quickest way to get things going without going for hours through comments on forums looking for the right answer for me.

Today I've seen this post in OMG! Ubuntu which brought new light to my clueless issues with the DVD playback.

Links of interest:

Medibuntu packages - http://packages.medibuntu.org/natty/index.html
Medibuntu Documentation - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu#Adding%20the%20Repositories

Free VPN service providers

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:11:00 +0100

It's always good to have some sort of security specially when using public wi-fi networks. After doing a bit of research and trying different things here is the option that work best for me.

There is not software installation involve as Ubuntu already comes with vpn tool pre-installed. You just need to click on the network icon and select "VPN Conections->Configure VPN...", you will be greeted with a new window like this one:

The service provider I used: http://www.bestfreevpn.com/

Just enter the details as shown on the screenshot below. One the things using this service provider is that they change the password every few hours but this is not to bad of an issue. The service they provide is quite good so far.

To be able to use the vpn you just setup you are going to restart the network manager but logging out and back in again. Once you do that you will be able to log into Free vpn by clicking on the network manager on the top right.

Another good service that I haven't been able to work is "itshidden.com" which I'm giving you because you may be more lucky than me.

All about Grub 2 - Adding menu, restoring windows 7 loader, recovering grub, ...

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Thu, 2 Jun 2011 05:04:00 +0100

Since upgrading to Ubuntu Natty and changing from grub to grub 2, all what I use to know about grub has been changed.

I had different problems on my pc and my netbook with the menu entries. On my pc Windows 7 would not start and on my netbook the menu option disappeared. I've been going at this for a while and I found some good websites. This is not going to be a follow step by step tutorial as all of the problems have already been solved by somebody else, so there's no need for me to rewrite them all. Instead I'm just going to post the links here as a reference.

UPDATED Change the default terminal window size

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Wed, 1 Jun 2011 22:52:00 +0100

I always heated the default size of the terminal window. The square size is to small to do any real work and it doesn't look right either with a wide screen, but looks a part it is not a great size for advanced users to do anything on it and always have to resize the window to suite my needs.

No more, here is a quick tip to always start the terminal window to the size of your liking. I can't remember the menu options from the all menu from gnome 2 but I'm sure any user can follow this steps. I'm using Unity.

1.- Press the super key to open the search lens and look for:

main menu

2.- Once the "Main Menu" application is running select "Accessories" on the left menu and then select "Terminal" on the second menu.

3.- Once you have the "Terminal" options is selected press the "Properties" button on the right. A new window will open with the terminal Launcher properties.

4.- Go to the "Command" entry and add this to the end of the entry:

--geometry=132x24

The finished entry should be:

gnome-terminal --geometry=132x24

5.- That's it. Close the windows and next time you launch the terminal the window will be resized. You may have to logout and log back in to work properly.

Play around with different sizes if you don't like the one I used. This should also work with other applications other than the terminal.

*********************UPDATE******************************

Since Ubuntu 11.10 the solution above doesn't work any more as Canonical have removed "Main menu" application. It doesn't seem to work either even if you install it from the Software Centre. Probably the way Unity works.

Here is a solution to change it. First go to:

~/.local/share/applications/

Use nautilus for this. Once you are in that folder locate the file for the terminal. Right click it and select "Properties" in the command entry add this as before:

gnome-terminal --geometry=132x24

That's it.

Just in case in your PC's don't have that file create a new one using Gedit an enter the following:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

[Desktop Entry]

Name=Terminal

Comment=Use the command line

TryExec=gnome-terminal

Exec=gnome-terminal --geometry=132x24

Icon=utilities-terminal

Type=Application

X-GNOME-DocPath=gnome-terminal/index.html

X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME

X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=gnome-terminal

X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=BugBuddyBugs

X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.32.1

Categories=GNOME;GTK;Utility;TerminalEmulator;

StartupNotify=true

OnlyShowIn=GNOME;

X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gnome-terminal

Terminal=false

MAFIAA - Browser Addon

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Sat, 7 May 2011 20:12:00 +0100

Not entirely Ubuntu related but interesting none the less.

We all know that a while back US Government started taking over web addresses from sites which they though are infringing with piracy...

Not so long ago TorrentFreak wrote an article about a browser addon which redirects the user to the new found addresses of the named websites. Pretty handy I thought...

Nautilus Elementary Tweak theme for Ubuntu 10.10 or 11.04

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Fri, 6 May 2011 19:57:00 +0100

simplygreat has posted a nice tweak for the theme of the Nautilus elementary which it makes it to integrate more with Ubuntu.

Here is the link to DebianArt

I also like the alternative instructions by Cybolic

About the installation, you can also just unpack "nautilus.rc" and the folder "nautilus" into $HOME/.gtk/ and put the following two lines in $HOME/.gtkrc-2.0:

include "/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"
include ".gtk/nautilus.rc"

Popper - email Notification now has a PPA

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Fri, 6 May 2011 00:22:00 +0100

My favorite email notification for Ubuntu has finally got a PPA.

First uninstall any older version of Popper:

$ sudo aptitude remove popper

Add the PPA to you package source:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ralf.hersel/rhersel-ppa

Update the repository:

$ sudo aptitude update

And finally install popper:

$ sudo aptitude install popper

Get the dropbox appindicator to work in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Thu, 5 May 2011 19:59:00 +0100

We all moved from 10.10 to 11.04 and by doing so we also adopted the new Unity interface. We all know that Unity still in infancy and still a lot of things that need fixing like this bug I reported to the Untiy Launchpad page which looks like that conky is causing it.

Some of them are bigger issues than others, and hopefully as we move forward to 11.10, Unity will be more like the interface we all expected to be, but for now we all gonna have to patch things up .

Anyway, Andrei at Webup8 has this patch for fixing the dropbox appindicator issue.

Make KDE look native under Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Mon, 4 Apr 2011 01:10:00 +0100

I haven't written anything for a while but as you know this is not a blog as any other but just like a memory dump for things I find interesting and want to remember. I find this way easier than bookmarking everything. The way I see it, this is just a blog with things of my interest.

You can find all about it here, so I'm not gonna bother on writing the same thing all over again, just follow the link...

Change Sidebar colour in Nautilus-Elementary

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:47:00 GMT

Here is one of those tips that should be used as a default in nautilus. OMG!Ubuntu posted this tip earlier this week.

Is quite simple and the results are quite impressive, it makes nautilus look much nicer.

First open nautilus and see if you have this file in your home directory ~/.gtkrc-2.0. If so, edit and paste the code below in it. If the file doesn't exist open gedit on paste the code below and save it as .gtkrc-2.0 in your home directory.

style "nautilus-sidepane"
{
    GtkTreeView::even_row_color   = "#F2F1F0"
}

widget_class "*NautilusSidePane*" style "nautilus-sidepane"

Ok, I'm off to do the same thing to my netbook.

Mono theme icon for ktorrent

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:03:00 GMT

Yesterday I talk about associating magnet links in Ubuntu and I mention that my favorite torrent downloaded is ktorrent, but one thing that ktorrent is missing is the mono icon for the appindicator in ubuntu.

I'm not a designer of even close but yesterday I spend a few minutes fixing this annoyance of mine for a while. Now, all my icons in the appindicator are looking nice...

To install it, just download the image below and save it as "ktorrent.png". Now open the terminal and enter:

$ sudo mv /usr/share/icons/hicolor/22x22/apps/ktorrent.png ktorrent_backup.png

$ sudo mv ~/Downloads/ktorrent.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/22x22/apps

Next time you start ktorrent the appindicator icon will be changed.

Make Gmail the default mail application

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 02:55:00 GMT

It always annoys me went I press a link and I get evolution mail client opening up. If you are like me and only uses web base mail clients and particularly you use Gmail this may be of help

Gnome Gmail does just that for you. It add support for making Gmail the default mail application for the Gnome desktop.

Once you install it make sure you go to:

System > Preferences > Preferred Applications

And choose Gmail as you default "Mail Reader"

Associate magnet links to any application on Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 02:48:00 GMT

This is one of those things that I've meaning to do for a while. This will work with any torrent client that supports magnet links. I use ktorrent which for me is the best out there.

Enter this into the terminal:

$ gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/command "ktorrent %i -caption "%c" %u"

Change what is comas with your preferred torrent client.

$ gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/needs_terminal false -t bool

$ gconftool-2 -t bool -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/enabled true

If you entered the above correcly you will end up with a new entry in gconf-editor like so:

Remember that mangnet links take a little longer to start downloading, just be patient.

Dropbox Icons for Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:24:00 GMT

A couple of days ago dropbox released their new version 1.0.10 to the public with lots of improvements and changes. Read more about it here.

One of the changes is the integration with appindicator with Ubuntu Maverick but they forgot to include the mono icon them for it. So here is the link for it.

Enabling "Aero Snap" in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:46:00 GMT

Nothing else to say everything is on the video:

Remember to install wmctrl which is needed to make this work:

$ sudo apt-get install wmctrl

Here are the command lines:

Command line 0:

wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b remove,maximized_vert,maximized_horz && WIDTH=`xdpyinfo | grep 'dimensions:' | cut -f 2 -d ':' | cut -f 1 -d 'x'` && HALF=$(($WIDTH/2)) && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,0,$HALF,-1

Command line 1:

wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b remove,maximized_vert,maximized_horz && WIDTH=`xdpyinfo | grep 'dimensions:' | cut -f 2 -d ':' | cut -f 1 -d 'x'` && HALF=$(($WIDTH/2)) && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,$HALF,0,$HALF,-1

Command line 2:

wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

Command line 3:

wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b remove,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

Add color to Bash prompt symbols

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:04:00 GMT

This is actually pretty simple. The trick behind is to add this line into "$HOME/.bashrc".

In the terminal:

$ sudo gedit ~/.bashrc

And enter this lines at the end of the file or anywhere really.

# Add color to Bash prompt symbols

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '

Save the file and close the terminal. Next time you restart the terminal the bash will be in a different color.

Transcoder - Video converter

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:16:00 GMT

Transcoder is a video converter for Linux using GTK+ as GUI toolkit and ffmpeg as backend.

It is distributed under the GNU General Public License.

In current version:
A double click on a list item will show information about an input file.
FAAD is the default AAC decoder now.
There is a GOP size option.
3gp video format, h263 video codec, and AMR audio codec support for mobile phones.
A deinterlace option.
A subtitle codec option.
AMD-64 support.
New aspect ratio values.
Default bitrate options for video and audio streams
The transcoder will look for ffmpeg in /usr/bin and in /usr/local/bin if it is not found in the working directory.
The minimal version for GTK+ is 2.16.
A HQ x264 profile with mobile phones support.
Other small changes and bugfixes.

Nautilus Easy Union ( Windows 7 libraries )

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Mon, 8 Nov 2010 02:27:00 GMT

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11/display-multiple-folders-content-in-one.html

https://launchpad.net/nautilus-easy-unionfs

Ease – Slick Presentation app that makes Impress look less than impressive

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Sat, 6 Nov 2010 19:51:00 GMT

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/11/ease-clutter-presentation-app-linux-ubuntu/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+d0od+(Omg!+Ubuntu!)

http://www.ease-project.org/index.html

Easily get Wine apps to match your GTK theme

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Wed, 3 Nov 2010 17:42:00 GMT

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/10/easily-get-wine-apps-to-match-your-gtk-theme/

Automatically Import All Missing Launchpad PPA GPG Keys [Ubuntu .deb]

noreply@blogger.com (heepie) — Wed, 3 Nov 2010 17:41:00 GMT

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/05/automatically-import-all-missing.html