Most of you already know that when you power on your computer, the first software that runs is a bootloader that invokes the OS from the computer. GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, is an important part ofmany Linux systems. Above are a few tips to help address the issues with Grub 2.

What are your Grub stories?

Check out my blog here or follow me on Twitter.

The refined Emesene helper now works with lastest version of the aforementioned application whilst also gaining the ability to display an dock icon appropriate to that of the set status .

Download

Nicolas’ helpfully over-hauled helpers can be downloaded  @

• http://dl.dropbox.com/u/776423/helpers.zip

Installation

Installation is also relatively simple, just extract the .zip file downloaded above in to

• /usr/share/dockmanager/scripts/

and restart Docky.

Nicolas has also created proposed merging his refinements with the main Docky branch so with any luck you’ll find these included by default not too long from now.

Gracias, Nicolas!

The application, which now sits at version 0.8 and is codenamed ‘Godsend’,  has added much vaunted messaging menu support, the introduction of desktop notifications and fixed Twitter support in remedy to the recent OAuthocalypse.

Other UI enhancements to the irssi-inspired client include: -

• More distinct nick colours by using a combination of colours
• Use of nick colours for userlists
• Emphasis of own nick in bold, making it easier to distinguish sent messages
• Menubar now toggle-able
• Full screen mode support for enhanced netbook experience
• Browse mode support
• Remembering of tab order when reconnecting to a smuxi-server
• Sound support by notification daemons which support this extension
• Display of IRC network name instead of hostname in the tab
• Addition of “Open Log” button for easy viewing of logs

Full change log can be found here.

Download

Lucid users can install Smuxi from its official PPA.

This is both the recommended and  easiest choice; you’ll stay up-to-date with the latest fixes as and when they’re available with no* input needed!

Open a terminal (Applications > Accessories >Terminal) and enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:meebey/ppa

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install smuxi

Smuxi 0.8 can also be installed from the project page @ smuxi.org/page/Download

Maverick users can already install this release direct from the Software Centre.

Once installed why not stop by the OMG! Ubuntu!  IRC channel on Freenode @ #omg!ubuntu! and check in to #smuxi whilst you’re at it and share some love? G’won.

*Well, apart from saying ‘yes’ to update, natch.

Many thanks Mirco

It now navigates quicker and loads faster than ever. Funny enough that even the memory consumption went down.

Look at the table and compare the times for yourselves (each row is a the time in seconds to load and draw a day in the activity journal)

Activity Journal Times

And here is a video to demo it…

You can read more about the details here…

And stay tuned for the next set of Zeitgeist related releases.

The feature freeze and User Interface freeze have long passed and the beta was released last week, so why is it not in the repository for public use already?

While Mark Shuttleworth comments “We definitely do want it in, and used by default” he later goes on to ask “I wonder if we should defer the actual use of the font till 11.04?” after being presented with a rather exhaustive to-do list by font bug triager Paul Sladen:

1. Finalise/harmonise the open-licensing (has been done behind the scenes, so can be effected quickly)
2. (Specifically) invite documentation team members to agressively test the PPA package
3. Take a weather reading of what the doc team think the impact of (a) shipping (b) by default as UI font, will be
4. Ditto for the translations teams.
5. Ditto for the release team.
6. Harmonise the versioning (bug #629727)
7. Harmonise the .deb package naming (tff-something-something)
8. Harmonise the Typeface family and display name (“Beta” or not, usurpbug #602870)
9. Upload to main archive (on basis of (1) and (2))
10. Main Inclusion Report (and hopefully get accepted)
11. Feature Freeze Exception (on basis of (3), (4) and (5) and hopefully get accepted)
12. Justify CD seeding (750kB … check there is room or start the carve up)
13. Fix ‘High’ and ‘Critical’ bugs
14. Adjust themes to use as User Interface default font setting (on basis of (8), (12), (13))
15. Say thank you to everyone and offer them relaxing cups of hot tea and chocolate biscuits.

This list doesn’t cover the lack of glyphs for popular languages such as Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, so Ubuntu users using those languages (and more) might be left out to dry if it were set to default – that’s if they can get it in on time!

Is this another embarrassing oversight on Canonical’s part, similar to apparently completely forgetting about the sound theme in the last cycle?

The most logical thing to do of course is to include it as an option on the CD, but not set it as the default font. Of course it will be a huge shame that Maverick, which is already looking stunning, doesn’t contain the new font that has generated such hype and excitement this cycle.

uTorrent Server… What?

As uTorrent note in their announcment of the release: -

“uTorrent Server is intended for users seeking a fast, commandline only BitTorrent client with remote web-based management.”

The headless daemon, sadly on 32bit only for now although sort of works in 64bit using ia32-libs, can be downloaded @ utorrent.com/downloads/linux

Fans wanting a traditional desktop application needn’t worry, with the uTorrent team also stating: -

“…rest assured we are working hard to build a full-featured GUI client.”

Thanks to DanielRM

FreeGuide

FreeGuide can be found nestled on the shelves within the Ubuntu Software Centre and whilst not the most glamorous of applications to look at (QT3, boo hiss) it’s easy to set up, easy to use but very slow to download listings if you select too many channels. Likewise it can lag when switching dates if too many listings are selected to show.

A nifty ‘Channel set’ feature helps to offset this, letting you group specific channels together.

The app has both vertical and horizontal viewing modes, letting you choose the layout to that is most intelligible to you, programme information is displayed neatly with a pane, a search feature allows you to seek out transmission dates for your favourite shows & the usual smattering of import and export options make it highly useful.

Download

FreeGuide can be found and installed from the Ubuntu Software Centre by clicking the easy-install button below.

There are considerable bugfixes galore, as Clementine developer Dave informs: -

“There have also been loads of CPU usage reductions and memory leak
fixes, and the startup time has been reduced by more than half.”

As well as a veritable soup of new features, including: -

• Device support – iPods, MTP and USB mass storage
• Queue manager
• Organise Files dialog
• Support for using Wiimotes as remote controls
• Loading embedded id3v2 cover art
• Hypnotoad

Clementine 0.5 RC main window

Download

Clementine 0.5 Release Candidate can be downloaded from the project download at: -

• code.google.com/p/clementine-player/downloads/list?q=Release%3DRC

As ever don’t forget to report any bugs you find so that the stable release can be super so.

As ever, thanks to zacH

This is largely understandable – we’ve no need geography games by default - but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t coo where coo’s are due, like at Jonathan Carter’s ‘rough around the edges’ slides for Edubuntu’s installer.

It is both beautiful & informative  -especially to those of us who assumed Edubuntu consists solely of tuxpaint and a pretty background.

Kudos!

• http://people.ubuntu.com/~jonathan/files/maverick/ubiquity-slideshow/

While we’re on the subject, if you’ve got a success story of Edubuntu being deployed in an area near you please take some photos and email us, we’d love to hear.

We first introduced Kazam back in June of this year under the title ‘making screencasting tools modern‘. At the time we were immensely impressed with not only the idea but the beautiful execution in design proposed for the application. Sadly the design was just that – a design.

Until today.

Kazam 0.1 is ready for users to, well, use and whilst it still has a little way to go before it’s the big bad game changer we cited it as it is nonetheless the best screencasting tool available on Linux right now.

Features

Kazam currently supports both screen & audio capture and export of final file to YouTube and Videobin. It also makes use of an Indicator Applet!

Download

Kazam is early in development so do not expect it to be as refined or as stable as other applications on your desktop. That said if you’re keen to try it out anyway then the following PPA is the one you’re after: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:and471/kazam-daily-builds

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install kazam

Once installed Kazam can be launched from the ‘Applications > Sound & Video’ sub-menu.

To Do

The developers behind Kazam still have a lot of bases they need cover so if you’re hands are idle do jump in.

What needs doing?

• Logo
• Translations
• PyGTK developers to enhance the GUI
• Use Gstreamer instead of ffmpeg
• Bug reporting/fixing/triaging
• Additional upload/export sources

Tip | Andrew

Images | Andrew