fanDigital

Workaround for Highlighted Text Problems in GNOME Apps when Using Custom GTK Theme

2014-01-11T13:03:00.002-08:00

A zonColor theme user reported: 'When i select any zoncolor theme i can't read text when i selected it in evince pdf reader'.

After some investigations, I found that this is a known bug of some GNOME apps like Evince, Evolution, and maybe other too (see https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=682435), so it will affects other GTK themes that do not include "new standard" in GTK theme color definition.

Those apps look for "the new standard" theme_selected_bg_color, theme_selected_fg_color, etc., instead of the standard, long time used "selected_bg_color", "selected_fg_color", etc (notice the difference, later ones are without "theme_"). This causing any theme that does not use "theme_*" color definitions in its css files will have problems with those apps.

For example, enable the Ambiance GTK theme (the default theme in Ubuntu) that does not using "theme_*" color definitions, and you will see the same problem in Evince.

.

Workaround

Put the following codes into /home/$USER/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css file (create one if it does not exist), or into the gtk.css file of the GTK theme you are using (for example into /home/$USER/.themes/zoncolor/gtk-3.0/gtk.css).

Put at the very end line of the file:

/*** CODES BEGIN ***/

@define-color theme_bg_color             @bg_color;
@define-color theme_fg_color             @fg_color;
@define-color theme_base_color           @base_color;
@define-color theme_text_color           @text_color;
@define-color theme_selected_bg_color    @selected_bg_color;
@define-color theme_selected_fg_color    @selected_fg_color;

.view:selected,
.view.selected:focused  {
color: @theme_selected_fg_color;
background-color: @theme_selected_bg_color;
}

/*** CODES END ***/

If you want, you can replace @selected_bg_color (for example) with fixed color code (like with #0088ff for example).

I'm not using those "theme_*" color definitions because it's simpler to use the standard one (without "theme_*") in zonColor GTK themes. But apparently, I have to use it in the next version. Oh well... :)

.

Workaround for Highlighted Text Problems in GNOME Apps when Using Custom GTK Theme by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Ubuntu in Debian Software Sources

2013-12-07T02:31:00.001-08:00

Besides Ubuntu as an OS on my machine, I'm also using Debian GNU/Linux 7 Wheezy for months now. I'm enjoying using this latest stable version of Debian because it really is a stable version. I never encounter a single error while using it. That's the main reason why I choose to use it for some stuff I'm doing. If you are looking for a stable OS and have never use Debian before, I highly recommend to install and use it.

In Debian stable, I can get many software and applications which are complete enough (at least for me) for everyday regular tasks. Although for some applications I used to use in Ubuntu I have to find alternatives, but they are there. Software versions in Debian stable are a bit outdated compared to those in some other Linux distributions but that's not really a problem because most of the time I don't really need new features that comes with the newer version of most applications.

But today I was thinking of adding some more software and also to get some more up-to-date version of apps. I was adding software sources from Debian Testing (currently Jessie repo) by using the powerful Synaptic Package Manager app. Then I open the software sources utility to add lines to software sources list. While I was clicking tabs in Software sources window, I noticed something strange, but funny :)

In the Updates tab, I find a name that is really familiar.... what the hell? Ubuntu updates in Debian? Nooooo..... LOL

Debian developers, be careful, as far as I know, Ubuntu name is copyrighted :D LOOOOL

Enough for a little smile for today :D

.

Ubuntu in Debian Software Sources by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Youtube Video Thumbnail Image Hotlink

2013-11-08T04:27:00.000-08:00

Youtube, the most popular video sharing website owned by Google, is also one of the best content resources for web publishers, bloggers, and also app developers. You can easily embed videos available on Youtube directly on your websites or apps so you users or audience could watch videos without having to go Youtube video page.

Youtube also lets you put the video thumbnail images on your page so you can show them to help users preview the videos that might be interesting for them to watch. Here is the link format if you want to get Youtube video thumbnail images.

Image Link Format

Youtube video thumbnail hotlink format:
http://img.youtube.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/#.jpg

Format Information

For example, a Youtube video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZS0Vj9irYs
As you may already know, JZS0Vj9irYs is the ID of the video.

Replace:
VIDEO_ID - with the ID of the video, e.g.: JZS0Vj9irYs
# - with thumbnail number: 0, 1, 2, or 3

.

Alternative Formats

The following formats doesn't always work, may depend on video size:
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/maxresdefault.jpg
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/hqdefault.jpg

.

Examples

Youtube video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZS0Vj9irYs

Thumbnail hotlinks :
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/JZS0Vj9irYs/maxresdefault.jpg
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/JZS0Vj9irYs/hqdefault.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/JZS0Vj9irYs/0.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/JZS0Vj9irYs/1.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/JZS0Vj9irYs/2.jpg
http://img.youtube.com/vi/JZS0Vj9irYs/3.jpg

.

Youtube video thumbnail image hotlink by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

zonColor 1.6.5: Glossy Icons, Desklets, Modern UI, LXDE, more...

2013-07-02T07:36:00.001-07:00

After some testing in 1.6 releases, I finally decided that zonColor is ready for a stable version of zonColor Themes Pack 1.6.5. This update is aimed to be compatible with latest version of various desktop environments (GNOME/GTK 3.8, Unity 7.0, Cinnamon 1.8, MATE 1.6, Xfce 4.10), along with additional features, theme components/templates, improvements, tweaks, and fixes.

One of differences in 1.6 compared to its previous releases 1.x, as previously noted, is in order to be compatible with GNOME/GTK 3.8, zonColor 1.6 introduces creation of actual GTK themes for color variant, rather than just make use of GTK-color-scheme feature that has been removed from GNOME/GTK 3.8.

For this release, I included some additions, one of them is new icons. Some people may like flat, square-framed icons, but me, I like icons that looks natural, 3D-shaped, shiny and glossy, and easy to be distinguished. This is a work in progress -- for now, I created icons for some apps, but for future releases I plan to create other icons too. And I also plan to include more than one icon template, so that users can have more choices of icon shape/style in creation of icon theme variant.

***

In latest release, Cinnamon 1.8 desktop introduces desklets, desktop widget that reminds me of my life in dark ages when I was still using windoze vista :)

For GNOME Shell theme, zonColor 1.6.5 were also updated with style for some new things in GNOME Shell 3.8. One of them is App Folder Popup in GNOME Shell app view, like you can see in the screenshot below, which is somewhat similar to category in classic menu. Other styles also added for the new GNOME 3.8 classic session.

***

For you who may not notice, one of the cool feature in GTK theme styling that I really like is its ability to define-color, refer color and use color shading/mixing so you don't have to use fixed color code for each of GTK theme elements. What I meant is if you open gtk.css or gtkrc file in text editor and you can see something like: @define-color: bg_color #dedede -- and than in next lines you can see something like: .button { background-color: shade(@bg_color, 1.08) } -- or another one like: .button { background-color: mix (@bg_color, selected_bg_color, 0.9) }. As you can see, it uses color reference, which is much more efficient IMO, compared to using fixed color like: .button { background-color: #e7e7e7 } for each theme element.

Metacity window decorator theme can use color reference/shading/mixing like GTK themes too, so it will automatically follow and can generate gradient or color variant by referring/shading/mixing of specified GTK theme colors. But that's not the case for some other theme engine, one of them is Openbox (default window manager in LXDE desktop). Openbox theme uses fixed colors for each element. This gave me problem when I want some of Openbox theme elemets like highlight color, border color, or inactive text color to automatically refer to color defined in GTK themes. I can simply put these color config in config files (*.zcfg files) and let users decide, but I don't want to fill config files with so many config options, not when they can be simply defined using color shading/mixing.

So I decided to create a simple script for color shading/mixing. This tool is used internally to generate color codes for some elements, for example are for Openbox highlighted titlebar background color which is a brighter variant of header_bg defined in config file, text color for unfocused window titlebar which is a mix of header_fg and header_bg, and also border color which is a darker variant of header_bg color. So for this release, for me that is an improvement in making of Openbox theme, special for LXDE users.

Because of different way (and more complex IMHO) of storing theme configuration in LXDE desktop compared to GNOME/Xfce, in previous releases zonColor app does not support LXDE for enabling themes. But now zonColor 1.6.5 includes a seperate zonColor app for LXDE, that can be used for enabling zcfg theme-set config files. But note that this tool for LXDE is still experimental.

***

Some new GTK theme templates have been added in latest releases. This includes flat GTK theme template, and also a new template called RedmondModern, inspired by the "Modern UI" (formerly known as Metro UI) Windows 8 style, a simple flat, square-ish GTK theme complete with window decoration theme template.

The nature of zonColor theme is color customization. After created the Modern UI inspired theme, I was thinking about some mixing/combination. So I created a theme called RadianceModern, a GTK theme that uses Ubuntu Radiance GTK theme color scheme but, instead of using Ubuntu Ambiance like theme template, it uses the Redmond Modern template. The result? Here it is:

This release is also a mark that is finally all available zoncolor metacity window decoration themes have been converted to Xfwm window decorator themes, so that Xfce users can have the similar experience like GNOME users have when using window decoration themes.

***

How about update for latest version of Ubuntu Unity desktop? Well, not much in visual aspect, but still includes fixes and updates. Here is a screenshot of one of zoncolor themes in Unity anyway :)

***

Download Latest zonColor Themes Pack

***

I hope you enjoy and thank you for your support.

.

zonColor 1.6.5: Glossy Icons, Desklets, Modern UI, LXDE, more... by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Razor-qt zonColor Theme

2013-06-17T10:16:00.003-07:00

I've been playing around with a new desktop environment called Razor-qt. It is a lightweight desktop that reminds me of LXDE. But, unlike LXDE, it is based on Qt, the technology used by KDE desktop. But unlike KDE, Razor-qt is much lighter and faster. So I may call this LXDE in Qt world :)

The official website at http://razor-qt.org/ describes Razor-qt like this:

Razor-qt is an advanced, easy-to-use, and fast desktop environment based on Qt technologies. It has been tailored for users who value simplicity, speed, and an intuitive interface. Unlike most desktop environments, Razor-qt also works fine with weak machines.

After using it for sometime, I think I really like it. Fast, responsive on my weak machine, and easily configurable. I enabled zoncolor GTK theme on Razor-qt desktop session. Then I browse the default Razor-qt themes available (there's four pre-installed ones in latest release 0.5.2), which are beautiful. And then I quickly think to create a new one, to match the zoncolor theme to make them look integrated.

Based on the default theme, here is the zoncolor Razor-qt theme.

Razor-qt theme allows you to specified a wallpaper image directly in theme config, so I include zoncolor wallpaper for the theme. When you enable the theme, the wallpaper specified will be automatically set as wallpaper.

DOWNLOAD

Install and enable theme in Razor-qt

Extract the downloaded archive, browse to extracted folder, and then copy or move zoncolor theme folder into one of the following locations:

/usr/share/razor/themes
/home/$USER/.local/share/razor/themes
(you need to create the themes folder manually).

To enable the theme, use Razor Appearance Configuration utility.

Best used in companion with zoncolor themes (GTK and icon themes).

.

Razor-qt zonColor Theme by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

zonColor Update: GTK, I love you?

2013-06-05T23:27:00.003-07:00

I have spent a lot of time lately working on next major updated version of zonColor Themes Pack. Currently, my primary focus is on new features for GTK themes of zonColor.

The big concern about zonColor GTK themes is due to the latest update version of GTK, where starting from GTK 3.8, they have stopped support for GTK color scheme (here is the announcement).

That was a disaster! Why? Because, for applying color customizations, zonColor GTK themes (versions 1.1 and earlier) rely on this feature, so that users can quickly and instantly apply color scheme to the currently active GTK theme, without having to generate a new GTK theme (unlike recoloring of icon themes and wallpaper that require to generate new ones).

The GTK color scheme feature was in fact why I started to make zonColor GTK themes (only) last year, before expanding to the whole zonColor pack that includes icon themes, wallpapers, etc. Later, I was happy that latest Xfce (4.10) includes color scheme feature too. And then I also heard news from Clement Lefebvre (founder of Linux Mint and Cinnamon project) himself that color scheme is planned to be added in next versions of Cinnamon (still not present in latest Cinnamon 1.8 though).

Well, GTK color scheme is gone now. So to be able to apply color customizations on GTK themes, I decided to make the zonColor app to automatically create/generate new GTK theme (if does not already exist) everytime new color scheme is activated and load the theme, instead of using GTK color scheme feature.

From positive point of view, the feature to create a new GTK theme to activate color customizations is an advantage for users, they can now create new GTK theme using specified template, with their own colors and configurations.

I recently released a new testing version of zonColor Themes Pack 1.6 Testing that includes support for latest version of various desktop environments (GNOME/GTK 3.8, Cinnamon 1.8, MATE 1.6, etc.). It also includes some new themes/presets, including Xfwm window theme. I also planned to add feature to allow users to create a window decoration themes.

Here is a screenshot of a new theme-set zoncolorFlat with zoncolorFlat GTK/window theme and zoncolorDull icon theme:

Download latest version of zonColor Themes Pack 1.6 from this page

zonColor Update: GTK, I love you? by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

zonColor 1.1 Update: Ubuntu Phone Wallpaper, "start-here" Icons, More

2013-01-15T10:31:00.002-08:00

Recently, Canonical announced a big project at CES event, Ubuntu for phones, a mobile operating system aimed to provide a user experience as in Ubuntu desktop edition, on smartphones. This "Ubuntu Phone OS" created hype among geeks and enthusiasts, hoping this could be an alternative to big players like Google Android and Apple iOS among other.

One of interesting things about this Ubuntu phone OS is its visual design. It looks beautiful, simple but elegant. This design includes a gorgeous welcome screen image aka wallpaper that looks consitent with Ubuntu desktop OS visual design, with its timer clock at the center.

Inspired by the Ubuntu Phone design, some creative artists created wallpaper design for desktop, bringing the phone welcome screen design into desktop PCs.

Download full resolution

For zonColor 1.1 update release, I decided to include "Ubuntu Phone OS"-inspired wallpapers (including template) into zonColor Themes Pack. It is a slightly modified version of "Inspire" wallpaper by Michał Prędotka (http://mivoligo.com/d/inspire-wallpaper), with some adjustment so that it can be recolored, like other wallpaper templates in zonColor.

Here is some other color variants of the wallpaper.

Download full resolution

You can download those wallpapers; just click the links provided. Or better yet, download zonColor Themes Pack, so you can easily create color variants, with your own colors, as many as you like.

***

In addition to new wallpaper, this update also bring additional "start-here" icons, icon used as start menu icon and/or as "distributor-logo" icon (e.g. menu icon on GNOME panel and on some other places).

You can choose what "start-here" icon you want to use for icon themes by using icon-changer script provided, for better look on Linux distro of your choice. Like you can see on the screenshot above, distro logo icons included are Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Gnome, Linuxmint, Mageia, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, and zonColor logo (default). The script also allows you to use your own icon for "start-here", in case you want to use a logo other than those included.

***

This latest update of zonColor also includes some fixes, most important is fixes for unreadable text-color issue on non-GTK apps (Firefox, LibreOffice) with dark color scheme.

***

Below is list / change log / what's new in zonColor Themes Pack 1.1.

Added "Ubuntu Phone" inspired wallpapers + template (modified version of "Inspire" wallpaper by Michał Prędotka: http://mivoligo.com/d/inspire-wallpaper).
Added "start-here" icons and "start-here" icon-changer script.
Added some customization presets.
Fixed text-color issue on non-GTK apps with dark color scheme. (Firefox, LibreOffice, QT-apps).
Fixed toolbar setting of zoncolorXtra-Redmond GTK2 theme.
Removed unneeded codes.
Updated documentation/README files.

And here is some more screenshots for this release.

"Ubuntu Phone" wallpaper on LightDM login screen. Looks gorgeous, isn't it?

Oh, for those who don't now but interested, the new Fedora 18 Spherical Cow has been released today!

I have downloaded the iso of the latest Fedora, and take a spin with live USB. I tried zonColor themes on it, and here it is, some screenshots of Fedora 18 live session, but with Ubuntu Phone color variant wallpapers :)

***

Get latest version of zonColor Themes Pack from download page:

Download zonColor Themes Pack

zonColor 1.1 Update: Ubuntu Phone Wallpaper, "start-here" Icons, More by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Set Nemo as Default File Manager in Ubuntu

2013-01-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

Nemo is a file manager application developed by Linux Mint team. It is a fork of Nautilus, the GNOME's file manager. In the beginning, Nemo was just Nautilus 3.4 (Nautilus version which is forked to become Nemo) with different name.

With rapid development and improvement, Nemo now become a full-featured file manager with lots of features, more customizable, and looks beter (in my opinion) than its original (Nautilus).

Nemo is the default file manager in Linux Mint, to handle folder and also handle the desktop. You can also easily install Nemo in Ubuntu if you want which is just apt-get away using a PPA (read more: How to install Nemo in Ubuntu),

When you install Nemo in Ubuntu, it doesn't set itself as the default file manager, Nautilus remains as the default one. If you want to integrate Nemo into Ubuntu system (as the default folder handler), you have to do it manually.

Here I want to share simple command to set Nemo as the default file manager in Ubuntu.

We will invoke the xdg-mime command from freedesktop.org, which is standard command and installed by default in most Linux distribution including Ubuntu. It can be use to set an application (*.desktop file) as the default file opening a certain file type(s) (mime-type). You can also use it to find out what application on your system to handle type(s) of file.

You can run this command in Terminal to show the default app for folder:

xdg-mime query default inode/directory

By default, the output of the command in Ubuntu should be nautilus.desktop.

Set Nemo As Default File Manager

If you have Nemo installed on your system and want to set Nemo as the default file manager, run this command in Terminal:

xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search

Now Nemo (nemo.desktop app launcher to be exact) should be the default file manager (folder handler). To test the result, run this command:

xdg-open $HOME

That command should launch Nemo showing your home directory.

The xdg-mime command should be available and can be used in most Linux distribution, not only in Ubuntu. If you want to know more about the xdg-mime command, simply run this command in Terminal: xdg-mime --help or man xdg-mime.

***

Set Nemo To Handle Desktop

In Ubuntu, Nautilus is set to handle desktop by default (to manage desktop icons, menu, etc), and if you have Nemo installed, there will be a conflict, both will be automatically loaded every time you logging in, to take control of the desktop.

If you want to stop Nautilus from handling the desktop and want to set Nemo instead, you can do the followings:

Disable desktop handling by Nautilus
Run this command in Terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false

Make sure Nemo is set to handle desktop
Run this command:
```
gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons true
```
.

Thanks to Cursor (see comment below) for pointing this out.

.

Set Nemo as Default File Manager in Ubuntu by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

zonColor 1.0.5 Update: Xfce Color-Scheme Support, New Xfwm Theme

2013-01-05T01:35:00.002-08:00

Today I decided to release updated version zonColor Themes Pack 1.0.5. This time is to bring some love to Xfce desktop.

The latest release provides ability to apply GTK-color-scheme setting on Xfce session, giving exactly the same experience as applying GTK color scheme in a GNOME-based desktop session. Thanks to TiZ, a gnome-look user, for his effort and information about this possibility for Xfce session.

GTK color scheme can be applied to the latest Xfce 4.10 desktop (i.e. Xubuntu 12.10). Earlier version (e.g. Xfce 4.8 used in Xubuntu 12.04) cannot used this, though.

Besides custom GTK color scheme, the above screenshot is also showing a new additional Xfwm theme called 'zoncolorLittle' included in latest version of zonColor Themes Pack, with buttons taken from zoncolorLittle Metacity theme images. Also added zoncolorXtra-Cupertino Xfwm theme. Xfce users have now additional choices for window decoration.

Here is more complete list of updates (change log):

Added GTK-color-scheme support for Xfce 4.10 (e.g. Xubuntu 12.10)
(earlier version of Xfce still not supported).
Added new Xfwm4 themes: zoncolorLittle, zoncolorXtra-Cupertino.
Added/updated icons: go-home, etc.
Added reset script into main folder.
Updated documentation/README files.

***

Get latest version of zonColor Themes Pack from download page:

Download zonColor Themes Pack

zonColor 1.0.5 Update: Xfce Color-Scheme Support, New Xfwm Theme by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Introducing zonColor Themes Pack: Full Set Themes with Unlimited Color Variants

2013-01-01T01:25:00.000-08:00

Started with "only" GTK-Themes, later added with icon themes, zonColor themes is now become a complete set of themes (including app) for GTK-based Linux desktop (Ubuntu, etc), comes with its special feature: you can set any color you like for the themes, as many color variant themes as you want. With included app, you can now easily apply colors for themes easily, with just few mouse-clicks.

Currently, zonColor Themes Pack includes GTK themes, icon themes, wallpapers, theme-sets (metatheme - mix-and-match of theme components) and some other theme-related utilities, including simple, straight forward little app.

Version 1.0 is the first initial release of the complete set, replacing previous version.

You can download zonColor Themes Pack 1.0 from this page.

Click here to see some screenshots.

.

zonColor Themes Pack: Complete Themes, Unlimited Color Variants by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

zonColor Themes Pack Screenshots

2013-01-01T00:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some more screenshots of zonColor Themes Pack, in various dekstop environment/session.

Keep in mind that the colors used are just examples, using some presets included in this pack. You can create your own variants, with your very own colors.

***

zonColor example themes used in Ubuntu Unity desktop:

zonColor dark theme variant:

zonColor themes inspired by Canonical colors:

zonColor themes in Ubuntu with Mac OS X style:

***

zonColor example themes used in GNOME Classic desktop (Ubuntu), Windows 7 basic look a like:

***

zonColor example themes used in Cinnamon desktop (Linux Mint):

***

zonColor example themes used in MATE desktop (Linux Mint):

***

zonColor example themes used in Xfce 4.10 desktop (Xubuntu 12.10):

***

zonColor example themes used in LXDE desktop (Lubuntu):

***

Some dark theme version of zonColor in GNOME 2 (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS):

***

"Ubuntu Phone" wallpaper on LightDM login screen. Looks gorgeous, isn't it?

***

GNOME Shell on Fedora 18 Spherical Cow, but with "Ubuntu Phone" wallpapers :)

***

Icon Themes

Example color variant icon themes

***

Wallpapers

Example color variant wallpapers

***

Download zonColor Themes Pack from this page

zonColor Themes Pack Screenshots by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

ManToFile: Export MAN Pages to Text File

2012-11-05T22:26:00.001-08:00

I've been busy learning some basic scripting in Bash lately. It's not for a serious purpose or something, I just want to be able to do some personal task in automated way using script, so I don't have to do repetitive steps manually everytime.

Bash shell is great tool to do the job, and it provides many useful, straight forward, built-in commands and utilities. We just have to know and learn how to use them.

Using Google and other websites, you can find many useful informations about bash scripting on the internet. It gave me answers to most of my questions in using Bash. But still, in some point or situation, I just want to know the basic, built-in command and utilities in Bash, using official manual how to use them (MAN pages). Combination of reading official MAN pages and working example use of commands gave me better understanding to create my own codes.

With my basic knowledge in Bash scripting, I made a simple, yet very useful (at least for me) script, I gave it a name: ManToFile. As you can suggest, it's a script to redirect the "man" command output to text file, so you can read the MAN page not only in a terminal window, but in a text editor application. Why did I make such silly script? Well, for me, it's more convenience and flexibel to read the text of MAN pages in a text editor window instead of in Terminal.

For those who interested, you can download here:

DOWNLOAD

mantofile_2012.11.06.tar.gz

ManToFile is free/open source (GNU GPL v.3 licensed)

Extract the downloaded file. To use the script, open Terminal window, navigate to the script location, and simply enter command mantofile or mantofile [MANPAGE], where [MANPAGE] is MAN page name that you want to read.

Then, the script will ask you to specify directory for output file, or you can simply press [ENTER] key to use default one. When succesfully created, the script will offer you to open it in a text editor for your convinience.

If you don't want to download, you can simply copy-paste the following code (nothing special, but it does the job) into a blank text file and then save it as whatever name you want. Mark the script as executable, and you are ready to use it:

#!/bin/bash

# Copyright 2012, Zon Saja <zonsaja@gmail.com> - http://fandigital.com
#
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

clear
echo "`basename $0` - Simple tool to export MAN pages to file"
echo "Usage: `basename $0` [MANPAGE]"
echo "-----------------------------------------------------------------------------"
echo

OutputDirDefault="$HOME/man";
ManFileExt="man";
ManPage=;
OutputDir=;

OpenManFilePrompt () {
 echo "$OutputDir/$ManPage.$ManFileExt created."; echo;
 read -n1 -r -p "Would you like to open it in a text editor?" InputKey;
 if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  if [ -z "$InputKey" ] || [ "$InputKey" = "y" ]; then
   nohup xdg-open "$OutputDir/$ManPage.$ManFileExt" > /dev/null 2>&1;
  fi;
 fi;
}

CreateManFile () {
 if $(man $ManPage > /dev/null 2>&1); then
  echo "Type output directory (default is $OutputDirDefault) and press [ENTER]:";
  read OutputDir;
  [ -z "$OutputDir" ] && OutputDir="$OutputDirDefault"
  (mkdir -p "$OutputDir" && man $ManPage | col -bx > "$OutputDir/$ManPage.$ManFileExt" && OpenManFilePrompt) || (echo ; echo "File export failed. Is '$OutputDir' writeable?");
 else
  echo "Sorry, no manual entry for '$ManPage'";
 fi;
}

CreateManFilePrompt () {
 echo "Type a MAN page and press [ENTER]:";
 read ManPage;
 if [ ! -z "$ManPage" ]; then
  CreateManFile;
 else
  echo "No MAN page specified.";
 fi;
}

if [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
 ManPage="$1";
 CreateManFile;
else
 CreateManFilePrompt;
fi;

echo;

For your convenience, I suggest you to put the script in bin folder within your home directory (/home/[YourUserName]/bin*). so that you can use it from any working directory in Terminal, without having to navigate (cd) to the script location. This way, you can simply call it by typing its name without dot and trailing slash in front of command (just type mantofile command instead of ./mantofile).

*) This is the location of user's bin Bash' PATH environment variable which is preconfigured in Ubuntu. It may differ in other Linux distros. Or you can modify /create .bashrc file located in your home folder to specify another location for Bash' PATH variable.

.

ManToFile: Simple Tool to Export MAN Pages to Text File by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Use Custom Theme in GNOME Shell 3.6 (Ubuntu 12.10)

2012-10-26T09:03:00.001-07:00

Here's a simple solution for you who use GNOME Shell desktop environment (GNOME 3.6) to make custom themes (especially metacity/window decoration themes) work on GNOME Shell 3.6 desktop in latest Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal).

Some people prefer GNOME Shell desktop environment over the default Unity desktop in latest Ubuntu 12.10. The DE comes with the default Adwaita theme from GNOME Team, which is clean and beautiful theme, but still, people want the ability to use custom themes to personalize for their own desktop.

In previous version of GNOME Shell, people can choose different themes by putting their cutom themes in user folder (~/.themes) and then easily activate them via a theme changer utility app like GNOME Tweak Tool (Advanced Settings). Unfortunately, in the latest stable realease (GNOME 3.6), this ability to use custom theme is not that easy anymore, which is I think a regression. Below is a screenshot:

Screenshot: Can not change window border theme on GNOME Shell session

Like you can see on the screenshot above, I activated custom themes (zonColor) for window border/titlebar theme, GTK theme, and GNOME Shell theme. The GTK theme and GNOME Shell theme work, but not the window (metacity/mutter) theme; it still show the default theme, despite what I choose via GNOME Tweak Tool app window.

So, how to make custom themes (especially metacity) work on latest GNOME Shell 3.6?

I found that this bug is not on GNOME Tweak Tool side, because the solution is quite simple. All you have to do is put your themes in system wide themes folder, which is located in /usr/share/themes, instead of user themes folder (~/.themes).

Solution

Put your themes in
/usr/share/themes
(system wide themes folder)
or
~/.local/share/themes
(see update below)

The above is the screenshot after I put my theme in /usr/share/themes folder and activate it via GNOME Tweak Tool, and it works. :)

As a side note, although this solution works perfectly, I hope that this is only a temporary solution or workaround; GNOME Shell developers should fix this issue so that users can easily change window border theme in GNOME Shell session to a theme found in their local themes folder (~/.themes), without having to modify system wide file-system.

***

UPDATE

2012.06.08

A reader, Morgan, has an alternative solution (thanks!) (see comment below). Put your themes in ~/.local/share/themes to use it in GNOME Shell session. This way, you don't have to move your themes to system wide themes folder (/usr/share/themes).

You can create a new themes folder in ~/.local/share and move/copy all themes to it, or better yet, I recommend you to create a symbolic link instead, to avoid duplicated contents. To create this symlink (symbolic link), simply run this command:

ln -s $HOME/.themes $HOME/.local/share/themes

Use Custom Theme in GNOME Shell 3.6 (Ubuntu 12.10) by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

zonColor Icon Themes: Multi-colored Icon Themes for Linux

2012-10-02T17:28:00.001-07:00

zonColor Icon Theme Pack is a collection of beautiful, multi-colored icon themes for Linux/Ubuntu desktop, brings color choices for icons themes to better match GTK theme used by user.

UPDATE

2013-01-01
zonColor now become a complete set of themes (plus app).

Download zonColor Themes Pack here

~~DOWNLOAD~~

~~zoncolor-icon-theme_2012.10.02.tar.gz~~

Screenshots below are just examples:

zonColorSky icon theme (light blue)

zonColorTurquoise icon theme (cyan)

zonColor Icon Theme Pack makes use of popular icon themes available for Linux desktop. This includes GNOME Colors, Oxygen, Faenza, and Elementary icon themes. There are some modifications and new icon sets, so that they become beautiful, good looking mix-and-match icons theme packs.

The color variants especially can be seen in folder icons which is based on GNOME Color (but there is new folder icons which is not available in the original GNOME Colors icons: "zonColorTurquoise" and "zonColorSky"), mixed with highly readable and modern looking icons of Oxygen, choices to use monochromatic icons for panel/status/action using the Faenza icons, and using Elementary icon themes for fallback icons.

zonColor Icon Theme Pack especially designed for used with multi-colored GTK themes like the zonColor GTK themes, but of course you can use it with any GTK themes.

***

Download, Install, Activate Icon Theme

UPDATE

2013-01-01
zonColor now become a complete set of themes (plus app).

Download zonColor Themes Pack here

~~DOWNLOAD~~

~~zoncolor-icon-theme_2012.10.02.tar.gz~~

~~Updated: 2012-10-02~~

Installation

Extract the downloaded archive. Navigate to the "zonColor-icon-theme-pack" folder, and then copy or move the entire contents (all folders named with "zonColor" and "zzz") into one of the following locations:

/usr/share/icons
/home/[YourUserName]/.icons

Activate Icon Theme

Use theme changer or appearance preferences utility like Gnome Tweak Tool, MyUnity, or Ubuntu Tweak.

TIPS

~~The icon theme is better used with zonColor GTK Themes,~~
~~elegant themes with highly customizable color schemes.~~

***

Change Log, License, Credits

Change Log

2013.01.01

zonColor icon themes is now part of zonColor Themes Pack, a complete, full set themes.

2012.10.02

Initial Release.

License

zonColor Icon Themes is 100% free and open source, licensed under GNU GPL version 3 or later.

Credits

zonColor Icon Theme Pack is made possible by the following super awesome projects:

GNOME Colors icon theme by GNOME Colors Team.
Oxygen icon theme by Oxygen Team/KDE Team.
Faenza icon theme by Matthieu James (Tiheum).
Elementary icon theme by Daniel Fore (DanRabbit).

All credit for icons used in zonColor icon themes goes to the original author.

.

zonColor Icon Themes: Multi-colored Icon Themes for Linux by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Fix User Themes GNOME Shell Extension Installation Problem (Ubuntu)

2012-09-21T20:31:00.001-07:00

GNOME Shell, a relatively new user interface environment for Linux desktop which was released with GNOME 3, comes with a default theme which aims to be both functional and good looking. Despite its beatiful design, many users (including me) at some point found that they just want to change the default look of their desktop with a custom theme.

In GNOME 3, there is no official utility for changing desktop theme, especially the Shell theme. You can install and use a tool like Advanced Settings (gnome-tweak-tool) to change various settings in GNOME 3 desktop including GTK theme, but to be able to change the Shell theme with a theme in user theme folder, you have to use an extension, that is User Themes extension (which is one of the most popular extension). You can install it from the official GNOME website here.

Unfortunately, up until now, the User Themes extension from the GNOME website that will be installed into your home directory, is still causing a problem, that is causing Advanced Settings (the app that we will use to change GNOME Shell theme) fail to launch when the extension is active (at least on Ubuntu 12.04 and Debian Wheezy, from my experience).

To fix the User Themes extension problem (causing Advanced Settings failed to launch), you can try the following steps.

Note: This guide is only tested with the User Themes extension from the official GNOME Shell website (installed on Ubuntu 12.04 and Debian Wheezy).

Open a terminal window, then do the followings:

Copy the User Themes extension's schema file (which is located within your home directory) into the system wide schema folder, by running this command:

sudo cp $HOME/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com/schemas/org.gnome.shell.extensions.user-theme.gschema.xml /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

Recompile (rebuild) system's schemas, by running this command:
```
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas
```
.

Note: Instead of running the two commands one-by-one, you can simply run the following single-line command:

sudo cp $HOME/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com/schemas/org.gnome.shell.extensions.user-theme.gschema.xml /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas && sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

Done.

Now you should be able to use the User Themes extension, as well as running Advanced Settings (gnome-tweak-tool) without problem and use it to change GNOME Shell theme.

.

Fix User Themes GNOME Shell Extension Installation Problem (Ubuntu) by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Better Way to Hide File / Folder in Nautilus (Ubuntu / Linux)

2012-09-11T08:39:00.003-07:00

As you Linux users may already know, in GNU/Linux file system, files/folder with a "dot" in front of their names will become hidden by default. So, if you want to hide a file/folder, you have to add a dot in front of its name (.MyHiddenFile for example).

But do you know that Nautilus, the default file manager app for Ubuntu OS and many other GNOME-based Linux distros, has a feature that can hide files/folders with an additional different way, without renaming the file/adding a dot in its name.

For me, this feature is very useful, especially to hide files/folders that cannot be renamed. Here is an example:

As you may notice from the screenshot above, there are system folders that used by Windows OS (yes, I have multiboot OS on my system, Windows and Ubuntu/Linux OSes) on one of my hard disk partition that I used to store data files (shared files). I hate it whenever I see those files (with ugly names) on Nautilus, but since they are system files in Windows OS, renaming them as dot files won't be effective, because they will be auto-generated whenever I go to WIndows and I will see them again when I return to my Linux box.

So, I use Nautilus' different way of hiding files as solution.

Create .hidden file containing list of hidden files/folders

To use this feature, simply create a file with name ".hidden" (dot hidden) located in a folder containing the files/folder you want to hide. Then open it in text editor and then create a list of names of the hidden files/folders.

On the screenshot above, I also make use of this feature in Nautilus to hide all system files/folders in root folder, by running simple command in Terminal:

ls / -1 | sudo tee -a /.hidden

.

That's just example, of course. With .hidden file, you can hide any files/folders in Nautilus, including your "important" files :)

***

Oh, if you want to prevent the .hidden file from appearing in Windows Explorer, set the file attribute as "super hidden" (hidden system file), by running this command in DOS prompt (yes, you read it right, because this command is for MS DOS :) :

attrib +s +h [absolute\path\to\.hiddenfile]

Better Way to Hide File / Folder in Nautilus (Ubuntu / Linux) by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Install Nemo File Manager in Ubuntu

2012-09-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

The upcoming changes in Nautilus 3.6 created controvery among desktop Linux users. The latest version of the file manager application from GNOME project has been completely redesigned so that it is much simpler in term of visual design, and also in its functionality.

Despite its better looking and consistency with other GNOME apps, removal of its features including compact view, tree view in sidebar, extra pane, and many other features available in its predecessor that are considered important features for many, has made users consider to find and use alternatives.

Ubuntu team has decided to stick with Nautilus 3.4 for its upcoming Ubuntu 12.10. Other Linux distro, Linux Mint team has had even more further move, by forking it, creating Nemo, a Nautilus 3.4 fork that keep its features, with some other useful addition.

Nemo is a full featured file manager, like Nautilus 3.4 plus more. Some of its features are all the features that Nautilus 3.4 had and which are missing in Nautilus 3.6 (all desktop icons, compact view, etc..). It also has better looking compared to Nautilus 3.4, especially its toolbar and also sidebar:

Nemo vs Nautilus 3.4

Other features are customizable toolbar, and also built-in useful context-menu items like "open as root (administrator)" and "open in Terminal".

For you who want to try to use Nemo in Ubuntu, you can install it in Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 12.10. Here's how.

Install Latest Nemo in Ubuntu

Install Nemo Stable

This is stable release, recommended for most users/systems.
Open up Terminal, and run the following commands (one-by-one):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nemo nemo-fileroller

Install Nemo Nightly (Testing)

This version provides more features, but less stable, contains more bugs.
Open up Terminal, and run the following commands (one-by-one):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-nightly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nemo nemo-fileroller

***

Note that installing Nemo will also install latest Cinnamon (currently Cinnamon 1.6) into your Ubuntu installation (but it's O.K, it wont replace your default Ubuntu session; it just add a new entry in login session list).

Additional Notes

As of now, most GTK themes available today are still not yet "compatible" with Nemo, because they were not designed specifically for Nemo, so Nemo won't look good when using those themes. Don't worry, you can use my theme, the theme I use for the above screenshots. Download here.

***

Update

2012-09-25

New packages have been added recently into the above Cinnamon repository. One of the most important ones is nemo-fileroller, an extension that integrates the File Roller (compression utility) service with Nemo. I think a compression/extracting utility is a very basic/standard feature which should be there in any file management app including Nemo, so I updated/added nemo-fileroller package to the installation instruction above.

Now Nemo is perfect: fully-featured and good looking. And with added extension, it can be used as a full replacement of Nautilus file manager, at least for me. I use Nemo over Nautilus for everyday file management task now, even in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

***

Update

2013-01-06

Read this post if you want to replace Nautilus with Nemo as default file manager in Ubuntu:

How to: Integrate Nemo in Ubuntu
(set Nemo as default file manager/folder handler)

Install Nemo File Manager in Ubuntu by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Install Real Firefox in Debian

2012-09-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

Mozilla Firefox is a widely used web browser in many GNU/Linux distibution, including Debian OS. But, due to the brand/name restriction, Debian use Iceweasel, a rebranded Firefox browser, as its the default web browser instead of "real" Mozilla Firefox.

Iceweasel is Firefox, only with different name and logo. It looks and performs exactly like Firefox, Firefox extensions/add-ons are 100% compatible and thus can be installed and used in Iceweasel.

But for many people, using the rebranded browser of Firefox somehow doesn't give a "real" Firefox eperience. And also, although in very rare cases, some websites reportedly can't recognize Iceweasel as Firefox, so the site can't be used smoothly on it. Another reason why some people prefer the real Firefox instead of Iceweasel, is because Iceweasel in Debian is a bit outdated, not updated to the latest Firefox (as of this writing, Iceweasel version in Debian Wheezy is Iceweasel ESR 10.0.7, while the latest Mozilla Firefox is Firefox 15.0).

For whatever reason, if you want to install the real Firefox in Debian OS, here I will show a little step-by-step tutorial/guide.

Debian doesn't provide Firefox in its official repository, so we need to install it in another way. In this method, I will show you a manual installation: how to install the real Mozilla Firefox web browser in Debian OS.

Install Firefox

Download Firefox
Download latest version of the original Mozilla Firefox for Linux from the official Mozilla website here, and put it in the Downloads folder within your Home directory (/home/$USER/Downloads).
.
Install Firefox
- Copy and extract Firefox archive
  Open Terminal, and change directory (cd) to the Downloads folder:
```
cd Downloads
```
  Then run the following commands (one-by-one):
```
sudo cp firefox-*.tar.bz2 /opt
cd /opt
sudo tar -xvf firefox-*.tar.bz2
sudo rm firefox-*.tar.bz2
```
  .
- Create symbolic link to firefox binary
  UPDATE (2013.11.17-080056-utc)
  Added "firefox.real" symlink (thanks to Wilbert van Bakel):
  Backup (move) any existing firefox bin:
```
sudo mv -f /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox.backup
sudo mv -f /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox.real.backup
```
  Create symbolic link to the real firefox binary:
```
sudo ln -sf /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
sudo ln -sf /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox.real
```
  .

Create Firefox Application Shortcut

Create symbolic links for firefox icon
~~sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/icons/mozicon128.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/firefox.png & sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/icons/mozicon128.png /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png~~
UPDATE (2013.11.08-135813-utc)
Changed Firefox app icon location (thanks to Naveen P Suthar):
```
sudo ln -sf /opt/firefox/browser/icons/mozicon128.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/firefox.png
sudo ln -sf /opt/firefox/browser/icons/mozicon128.png /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png
```
.

Create firefox.desktop file in /usr/share/applications
Open gedit (or another text editor app) with root privilege:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

Then copy-paste the following text:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Firefox
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
X-GNOME-FullName=Firefox Web Browser
Exec=/opt/firefox/firefox %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=firefox
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
StartupWMClass=Firefox-bin
StartupNotify=true

Save the file as firefox.desktop in the /usr/share/applications folder

Done.
You should now have Firefox Web Browser in GNOME applications menu.

***

Update Firefox

If you install Firefox on your system using the above method, you can update your Firefox installation by running Firefox browser as Root, and then update using build-in updater in Firefox window.

Open up a Terminal window, and then run the following command:
```
sudo /opt/firefox/firefox
```
.
In Firefox window, navigate to the Help menu ==> About Firefox. From the About Mozilla Firefox window, you can see update status and perform update process.
.

NOTE
Running Firefox as Root should not be used for regular web browsing.

.

Install Real Firefox in Debian by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Format Junkie: Convert Multimedia Files Easily (Ubuntu)

2012-09-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

Format Junkie is an easy to use, all-in-one application for converting media files to most popular formats today.

With its nice GUI, format Junkie comes with lots of options, and supports various multimedia files including audio, video, image, iso/cso formats, and also an advanced feature to join audio/video files or encode subtitles.

Specifically, the following media files are supported:

Audio
Conversion between the audio formats: mp3, mp2, wav, ogg, wma, flac, m4r, m4a and aac
Video
Conversion between the video formats: avi, ogv, vob, mp4, vob, flv, 3gp, mpg, mkv, wmv
Image
Conversion between the image formats: jpg, png, ico, bmp, svg, tif, pcx, pdf, tga, pnm
Iso/Cso
Create an iso with selected files, convert iso to cso and vice versa.
Advanced
Join videos, join audio files or encode subtitles to an avi file (to use advanced feature, you need to install mencoder package).

Making use of Ubuntu's Unity environment, Format Junkie brings a great integration with the Ubuntu desktop including notifications, progress bar and counter in the Unity launcher bar.

For your info, this handy multimedia tool is one of applications that was submitted to the App Showdown Ubuntu, a contest to promote the development of applications for Ubuntu OS, organized by Canonical.

***

Install Format Junkie in Ubuntu

Run the following commands in Terminal (one command at a time):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hakermania/format-junkie
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install formatjunkie

Notes:
At the time of writing, Format Junkie is only available for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

For more information, visit https://launchpad.net/~hakermania/+archive/format-junkie

.

Format Junkie: Convert Multimedia Files Easily (Ubuntu) by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Find Out GTK+ Version in Ubuntu / Linux

2012-08-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

GTK+ is a toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces, that is capable to be used in many platform (multi-platform). The GTK name was originally a short of "GIMP ToolKit". It is the engine for rendering graphical widgets/elements in applications. GTK+ is the default rendering engine used in GNOME applications that we can find in various GNOME-based Linux distributions including Ubuntu OS.

A GTK+ theme, such as a theme I made, requires GTK+ library to be installed before it can be used. Like an application, a GTK+ theme is designed for specific version of GTK+ libraries. For example, zonColor theme pack was designed for both GTK+ 2 and GTK+ 3, specifically GTK 2 ver. 2.20 and/or GTK 3 ver 3.4 as minimum requirements.

A GTK theme used in GNOME image viewer app (EOG) displaying GTK+ logo

So, the question is: How to find out the GTK version running in my OS?

There is no specific tool or command that can be used to answer that question, but you can try Terminal commands below, for both GTK2-based desktop (such as Ubuntu 10.04) and GTK3-based desktop (such as Ubuntu 12.04).

For GTK 2

Run this command in Terminal:

dpkg -s libgtk2.0-0|grep '^Version'

The output should look something like this:
Version: 2.24.11-0ubuntu1

For GTK 3

Run this command in Terminal:

dpkg -s libgtk-3-0|grep '^Version'

The output should look something like this:
Version: 3.5.12-0ubuntu3

Notes:
The above commands are tested on Ubuntu OS (10.04 and 12.04). For other Linux distros, they may vary.

.

Find Out GTK+ Version in Ubuntu / Linux by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Install Non-Free Multimedia Codecs in Debian

2012-08-20T00:17:00.000-07:00

Debian GNU/Linux is a free and open-source operating system, that brings only free software/applications by default.

For most users, although the applications included in official Debian iso release are capable to handle most everyday computing tasks, but sometimes they still need to use additional codecs especially to deal with certain types of file like mp3 audio, Java plugin, Adobe flash, or basic MS fonts that is included in an office document, or other proprietary formats.

Fortunately, the non-free format can be easily installed in Debian system. FYI, in Ubuntu world I believe that most of us know that to install most used non-free multimedia codecs in Ubuntu OS all we have to do is installing a single meta-package with a famous Terminal command sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras. In Debian OS, there is no such meta-package, but no worry, we can also install the codecs in Debian too, in easy way.

Simply run the following single-line command in Terminal:

sudo apt-get install libav-tools libavcodec-extra-53 libavdevice-extra-53 libavfilter-extra-2 libavformat-extra-53 libavutil-extra-51 libpostproc-extra-52 libswscale-extra-2 flashplugin-nonfree ttf-mscorefonts-installer icedtea-plugin

NOTES:

The above command has been tested in Debian 7 Wheezy (Testing).
The Java plugin that will be installed by using the above command is Icedtea package from Debian repository. If you want, you can install official Oracle/Sun Java plugin instead. Read this post for more info.

Install Non-Free Multimedia Codecs in Debian by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

zonColor: Elegant Theme, Your Own Color Scheme

2012-08-17T09:06:00.002-07:00

This is not just another theme; this is more like a theme template. With your own colors of choice, you can easily make your own theme. Finally :)

UPDATE

2013-01-01
zonColor now become a complete set of themes (plus app).

Download zonColor Themes Pack here

~~Download~~

~~zoncolor-gtk-theme_2012.09.09.zip~~

I decided to release this new theme pack for Linux, after writing codes and creating artworks for it for last several months. I've been working on this theme since Ubuntu 11.04 was released, but I've never felt satisfied with the details of some elements of it that its look and feel were, I think, still can be improved. So I only used it for my personal use, while I kept improving it. But now I'm satisfied with the result so I publish this theme for everyone who may like it.

I call this theme "zonColor", a smooth GTK theme for Linux/Ubuntu (GNOME-based desktop). This theme has been designed carefully with users customization in mind, especially for the colors of various elements of the theme.

Unlike many other themes out there, zonColor are using flexible color values that follow color changes from simple command, without having to manually modify the theme codes.

This theme pack is more like a GTK theme template. Several examples/presets of color scheme are provided (included in the downloadable file below), so that users can easily activate different color schemes, just by double-clicking a shell script file to use/activate new color schemes. Further more, users can easily modify the color scheme examples by using a simple text editor application (like Gedit or Leafpad) to change color values, save as a new color scheme, and activate them.

Here are some screenshots of the theme.

The above screenshots are just examples of using different colors. You can use any color you like, be it dark or light colors. Just make sure, for readability, to pick colors that are contrast enough between text and background colors.

More screenshots, GNOME Shell and Cinnamon (dark and light themes):

It works on latest Ubuntu too. Screenshots: Nemo file manager (Nautilus fork) running on latest Cinnamon 1.6 (on Ubuntu 12.10) and on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:

Even more screenshots, on MATE desktop, Xfce, and LXDE:

Various GTK 2 and GTK 3 widgets preview of the theme:

The themes are also aimed to bring consistent look across different theme engine (running on GTK-based desktop session). Here is a screenshot of Mozilla Firefox (gecko app), LibreOffice, and Smplayer (QT app), running on GNOME 3 classic desktop:

***

Supported Systems, Requirements

The themes are for GNOME/GTK-based Linux desktop.

Tested on the following Linux distros

Ubuntu 12.10, 12.04 LTS, and 10.04 LTS (and also Xubuntu, Lubuntu)
Debian Squeeze and Wheezy
Linux Mint 13 Maya
Fedora 17

Supported Desktop Environment/Shell

Unity, GNOME Shell, Cinnamon, MATE, GNOME Classic, Xfce, LXDE

Supported Window Manager (WM)

Metacity-based WM
(including default Metacity, Metacity in Compiz/Unity, Mutter (GNOME Shell WM), Muffin (Cinnamon WM), Marco (MATE WM)
Xfwm (Xfce default WM)
Openbox (LXDE default WM)

***

Requirements

If you are using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, then you can just use the theme. The following requirements are more for other Linux distros.

The following packages are required:

GTK 3.4 (for GNOME3-based desktop like Ubuntu 12.04) and/or
GTK 2.20 (for GNOME2-based desktop like Ubuntu 10.04).
Read: How to find out GTK+ version.
Murrine 0.98.1 and Pixbuf 2.20 GTK2 engines (for GTK 2 apps)

Optional (recommended):

Unico 1.0.2 GTK3 Engine (for GTK 3 apps)

NOTES

In Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Linux Mint 13 Maya (Main Edition), all required engines and libraries mentioned above are already installed by default, so you can just use the theme without installing additional packages.

In other Linux distros, the required packages (package names may vary) can be installed with a package manager. Try installing them using packages from official repository first. If you can't find them, you need adding third party repository for your distro.

***

Download, Install, Activate Theme

UPDATE

2013-01-01
zonColor now become a complete set of themes (plus app).

Download zonColor Themes Pack here

~~To download, install, and activate the theme, you can simply run the following single-line command in Terminal:~~

wget -O $HOME/zonColor-theme-pack.zip http://zoncolor.googlecode.com/files/zoncolor-gtk-theme_2012.09.09.zip && unzip $HOME/zonColor-theme-pack.zip -d $HOME && mkdir -p $HOME/.themes && mv -f $HOME/zonColor-theme-pack/themes/* $HOME/.themes && echo "The entire contents of this folder have been moved to $HOME/.themes" | tee $HOME/zonColor-theme-pack/themes/README; sh $HOME/.themes/zonColor/zonColor-gtk-theme.sh; sh $HOME/.themes/zonColor/zonColor-metacity-theme.sh; sh $HOME/.themes/zonColorDarkNight/zonColorDarkNight-shell-theme.sh; sh $HOME/zonColor-theme-pack/color-schemes/zonColor.sh

~~The above command will download the latest theme archive, extract it, install themes into the .themes folder within your home directory, and finally activate the default theme and color scheme.~~

~~Alternatively, of course, you can always download, install, and activate it in usual way:~~

~~Download~~

~~zoncolor-gtk-theme_2012.09.09.zip~~
~~Updated: 2012-09-09~~

~~Download Mirror~~

Theme Installation

After downloading the file, extract it, and go to the extracted folder (zonColor-theme-pack). Then Go to the "themes" folder. Next, move or copy all folders within the "themes" folder (all folders named with "zonColor") into one of the following locations:

/usr/share/themes
(system's themes folder, for all users)

/home/[YourUserName]/.themes
(only for you, meaning that administrative apps like Synaptic won't be styled)

Activate Theme

Use theme changer utility like Gnome Tweak Tool, MyUnity, Ubuntu Tweak, or you can activate theme using Terminal command.

***

Activate/Customize Color Scheme

Just double-click and run a color scheme preset available in the "color-schemes" folder to activate a color scheme.

If you want, you can easily customize it. Open a color scheme preset in a text editor, modify color values to your liking, and save it or save as a new one. Then double-click and run it to activate a new color scheme. Read the README file within the "color-schemes" folder for more info.

***

As a bonus, simple commands to change window buttons layout are also provided (for Metacity window decorator). Read the README file within "window-button-layout" folder.

TIPS

~~zonColor GTK Theme is better used with zonColor Icon Themes,~~
~~a multi-colored icon themes pack.~~

***

Change Log, License, Credits

CHANGE LOG

2013-01-01

zonColor GTK-themes is now part of zonColor Themes Pack, a complete, full set themes.

2012-09-09

Fixed wrong text color of desktop icons if using Nemo file manager.

2012-09-04

Added text shadow options.
Added more detailed color options.
Added more style presets.

2012-08-17

Initial release.

LICENSE

zonColor Theme Pack is 100% free and open source, licensed under GNU GPL v.3 or newer.

CREDITS

zonColor is based on/inspired by the following projects:

Light Themes by Ubuntu Team/Canonical.
Adwaita/GNOME Shell Theme by GNOME Team/Redhat.
Cinnamon Theme by Cinnamon/Linux Mint Team.
Bluebird/Greybird GTK Themes by The Shimmer Project
Elementary GTK Theme by Daniel Fore.

zonColor: Elegant Theme, Your Own Color Scheme by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Get 25 GB Free Storage on Ubuntu One

2012-08-15T13:37:00.002-07:00

Thanks to the rapid adoption and speed of internet, we now live in an era where we put much of our data on the "cloud". Of course it's not the real cloud in the sky, but it means that more and more digital data nowadays are placed on web servers around the world. This trend is growing rapidly because we find it practical, highly accesible, and more secure than traditional storage system on hard disks or local servers.

Ubuntu, the Linux-based operating system, is also offering its users and others a free storage, called "Ubuntu One" cloud storage service, a service similar to Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, but in my opinion, is more trusted than others I mentioned, since it comes from the free open-source environment :).

Every basic free account of Ubuntu One users will get 5 GB storage space for free.

Today, Ubuntu One has announced an exiting promotion, offering every users to get even more free storage, up to 20 GB (so total free space will become 25 GB), by inviting friends or family or anybody to sign up for a new Ubuntu One account using a unique referral link.

For every succesfull sign up of new Ubuntu One account you invited using your unique referral link, both you and the signee will get additional 500 MB of free storage. With maximum of 40 people signing up via your invitation, you will get 20 GB additional free storage, besides the 5 GB free space when you signed up for Ubuntu One account.

So, if you want this free cloud storage from Ubuntu One, just go to Ubuntu One website (yes, that's my referral link :) ), complete the sign up process, and then go to Ubuntu One Dashboard for your unique referral link.

Then you can invite your friends, family, or anubody to sign up for Ubuntu One account via your own referral link for additional free storage for both you and your friends.

Note that the Ubuntu One service is not only available for Ubuntu OS users, but also for Windows, iOS, Android, and other OS users as well, or anybody with internet access. Ubuntu OS comes with Ubuntu One application pre-installed on their system, but other OS users can also join this service and installing its application client on their OS or access it via its online website or mobile application.

.

Get 25 GB Free Storage on Ubuntu One by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Install Latest KDE in Ubuntu / Kubuntu

2012-08-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

KDE SC (Software Compilation) is one of the most used desktop and application platform/environment in Linux, beside GNOME which is the default platform in Ubuntu. KDE offers high quality, slick and very nice looking, and arguably the best, highly customizable workspace and applications for its users.

KDE developers announced availabily of the latest version of KDE software, which is KDE SC 4.9 that brings many improvements, bug fixes, new features, and the best updated release yet.

Kubuntu 12.04 running the latest KDE 4.9 (with some customization)

***

What's New in KDE 4.9

Here is a summary of new changes and features in KDE 4.9:

Plasma Workspaces
Improvements to the Dolphin File Manager, Konsole X Terminal Emulator, Activities, and the KWin Window Manager (more info).
KDE Applications
New and improved KDE Applications: Okular, Kopete, KDE PIM, educational applications and games (more info).
KDE Platform
Bugfixes, quality improvements, networking, and preparation for Frameworks 5.

Dolphin (KDE's file manager) running on Ubuntu 12.04 (GNOME) desktop

Just saying, I really like Dolphin, the default KDE's file manager, which I think is the best, feature rich, and highly customizable file management application. I even use it in Ubuntu, which is based on GNOME desktop, more than Nautilus GNOME file manager.

***

Install KDE 4.9 in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 12.04

Ubuntu/Kubuntu 12.04 comes with KDE 4.8. You can install the latest KDE 4.9 or upgrade to the latest version by adding Kubuntu Backports PPA (more info) into your software sources in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 12.04.

Here you go:

Add PPA repository
Run the following commands in Terminal (one command at a time):
```
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt-get update
```
.
Install/upgrade KDE desktop
- Upgrade KDE installation (if you have previous versions of KDE installed on your system), run in Terminal:
```
sudo apt-get upgrade
```
- New KDE installation, run in Terminal:
```
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
```
.

Log out from current session, and log back in by choosing KDE Plasma Desktop in login screen, to start using latest KDE workspace.

Uninstall/Remove KDE 4.9 (Revert Changes)

If, for some reason, you would like to remove KDE 4.9, or downgrade to the previous version from the default official Ubuntu repository, run the following commands in Terminal (one command at a time):

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt-get autoremove

Install Latest KDE in Ubuntu / Kubuntu by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

Install Latest MATE in Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint

2012-07-27T21:23:00.001-07:00

The MATE desktop environment is a fork of GNOME 2, bringing back full experience of classic/traditional desktop metaphor found in GNOME 2.x.

MATE desktop probably is the best choice especially for Linux users who can't get used to the mobile-device-centric desktop environment like GNOME Shell or Ubuntu Unity, and want to keep using the classic, simple yet highly customizable, GNOME 2 look and feel instead.

Since its first release in late last year, now MATE has been consider stable enough for everyday use, with its latest release that has reached 1.4 version today.

Below is the screenshot of MATE 1.4 running on top of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin, with some customization.

As someone asked in the comment below, I used zonColor GTK theme on the screenshot.

***

What's New in MATE 1.4

According to MATE's official wiki page, here are changes from previous release:

Fix remaining applications in Mate-Extra
- mate-character-map ported
- mate-disk-utility removed
- mate-policy-kit removed
Fix mate-keyring
Add caja-dropbox package
Caja improvements
- Restore toggle button for button and text-based location bar
- Add the ability to open bookmarks in the places side pane via the enter and space keys
mate-notification-daemon
- New themes: coco, nodoka
- Fix big icons issue
Fix mate-indicator-applet (not all distros have the required dependencies)
- Remove indicator-applet-session
Fork gnome-user-share (as mate-user-share)
Fork libwnck (as libmatewnck)
Remove evolution dependency from caja-sendto and create a generic email plugin
mate-media: remove unworking mate-sound-recorder
mate-screensaver: add GDM support for user switch
Add an option to marco to enable fast alt-tabbing when compositing is enabled
mate-icon-theme-faenza
Translations sync with transifex

***

Install MATE in Ubuntu, Debian

Add APT Repository
- For Ubuntu
  Run in Terminal:
```
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` main"
```
  The above command will add MATE repository into source.list. Your Ubuntu version codename will be detected and inserted into the command automatically.
  
  Alternatively, you can use the following command but first you need to replace [CODENAME] with your Ubuntu codename (e.g.: oneiric, precise, or quantal) manually before executing it:
```
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu [CODENAME] main"
```
- For Debian Sid/Wheezy
  Run in Terminal:
```
echo "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/debian wheezy main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mate.list
```
.

Install MATE Keyring

Run in Terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-archive-keyring
sudo apt-get update

Install MATE packages
Choose one of these:
- Install base packages only
  Run in Terminal:
```
sudo apt-get install mate-core
```
- Install more (complete) packages
  Run in Terminal:
```
sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment
```
.

For Linux Mint users, Linux Mint 13 Maya already has MATE in its official repository. You can install MATE using Software Manager or Synaptic. Or better yet, download Linux Mint 13 Maya MATE Edition iso image from Linux Mint website.

For other Linux distros, see this MATE installation page.

***

MATE Issue: QT Apps Ignoring GTK Style/Theme

Up until now, there is still an issue (bug?) with QT applications (e.g. Clementine, VLC) running in MATE session: they use native/generic QT style instead of GTK style/theme, so that they don't integrate nicely with MATE desktop environment.

Here's how to solve this issue:

Install qt4-qtconfig package in Ubuntu/Debian by using Synaptic or Software Center, or by installing it via Terminal:
```
sudo apt-get install qt4-qtconfig
```
Then search and run the QT 4 Settings application you just installed (System => Preferences => QT 4 Settings) ==> set GUI style to GTK+ ==> save the change.

Done. Now your QT apps should follow your chosen GTK theme.

.

Install Latest MATE in Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint by fanDigital

PS: Still, sorry for my English :)

fanDigital

Workaround for Highlighted Text Problems in GNOME Apps when Using Custom GTK Theme

Workaround

Ubuntu in Debian Software Sources

Youtube Video Thumbnail Image Hotlink

Image Link Format

Format Information

Alternative Formats

Examples

zonColor 1.6.5: Glossy Icons, Desklets, Modern UI, LXDE, more...

Razor-qt zonColor Theme

Install and enable theme in Razor-qt

zonColor Update: GTK, I love you?

zonColor 1.1 Update: Ubuntu Phone Wallpaper, "start-here" Icons, More

Set Nemo as Default File Manager in Ubuntu

Set Nemo As Default File Manager

Set Nemo To Handle Desktop

zonColor 1.0.5 Update: Xfce Color-Scheme Support, New Xfwm Theme

Introducing zonColor Themes Pack: Full Set Themes with Unlimited Color Variants

zonColor Themes Pack Screenshots

Icon Themes

Wallpapers

Download zonColor Themes Pack from this page

ManToFile: Export MAN Pages to Text File

Use Custom Theme in GNOME Shell 3.6 (Ubuntu 12.10)

Solution

UPDATE

zonColor Icon Themes: Multi-colored Icon Themes for Linux

UPDATE

Download, Install, Activate Icon Theme

UPDATE

Installation

Activate Icon Theme

TIPS

Change Log, License, Credits

Change Log

License

Credits

Fix User Themes GNOME Shell Extension Installation Problem (Ubuntu)

Better Way to Hide File / Folder in Nautilus (Ubuntu / Linux)

Install Nemo File Manager in Ubuntu

Install Latest Nemo in Ubuntu

Install Nemo Stable

Install Nemo Nightly (Testing)

Update

Update

How to: Integrate Nemo in Ubuntu (set Nemo as default file manager/folder handler)

Install Real Firefox in Debian

Install Firefox

Download Firefox

Install Firefox

Create Firefox Application Shortcut

Update Firefox

Format Junkie: Convert Multimedia Files Easily (Ubuntu)

Install Format Junkie in Ubuntu

Find Out GTK+ Version in Ubuntu / Linux

For GTK 2

For GTK 3

Install Non-Free Multimedia Codecs in Debian

zonColor: Elegant Theme, Your Own Color Scheme

UPDATE

Supported Systems, Requirements

Tested on the following Linux distros

Supported Desktop Environment/Shell

Supported Window Manager (WM)

Requirements

NOTES

Download, Install, Activate Theme

UPDATE

Theme Installation

Activate Theme

Activate/Customize Color Scheme

TIPS

Change Log, License, Credits

Get 25 GB Free Storage on Ubuntu One

Install Latest KDE in Ubuntu / Kubuntu

What's New in KDE 4.9

Install KDE 4.9 in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 12.04

Uninstall/Remove KDE 4.9 (Revert Changes)

Install Latest MATE in Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint

How to: Integrate Nemo in Ubuntu
(set Nemo as default file manager/folder handler)