Ubuntu Root

UberWriter - Simple Markdown Editor

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 13:28:00 +0000

UberWriter is a simple Markdown editor. Challenge, write this review it this editor.

Features

Focus mode - focus will highlight your current sentence.
Fullscreen mode.
Spell check.
Export to PDF, HTML and RTF.
Math formulas support - you can write math formulas. etc e^2 * x = y after exporting will be formated as e2∗x=y
Simple design.

Focus Mode

Impression

Writing in in markup language is really fun and relaxing and focus mode makes you focus on writing and current sentence. Also simple design of app helps with that. Contrast between text and background and simple design makes pleasant experience for eyes.

Missing features

While app is not yet finished i would like to see this features included in future versions.

One feature that i miss from start that is start to using is tabs, you cant open multiple files at once. I would be nice if tabs were integrated differently than other text editor, standard tabs integration would just break simple design of app.
While i like the design and markup language (this is first time i am using it and i like the simplicity of language) i would like more export features like export to Blogger. I don’t like Blogger’s editor that much. I would write text here and edited it there (add images and etc). Export to Google docs would be nice and Ubuntu One sync will be implemented in future versions.
Preview feature would be nice, when you write math formulas to quick check if you did not make some mistakes.s
Some kind of build in syntax help and examples would be nice. I found this site very useful for syntax examples http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax

Final conclusion

For the first time i used this type of app i am really satisfied with simplicity and productivity that UberWriter gives. Writing is really smooth and contrast of text and background is very pleasant to eyes. While default text editor in Ubuntu Gedit also support markdown UberWriter offers better user experience for writing.
As for challenge to write this review in UberWriter i can say it was success.

Try it for you self

You can download UberWriter by adding PPA, in terminal type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:w-vollprecht/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install uberwriter

As i mentioned UberWriter is not finished yet and you can send your feedback.

UberWriter by: Wolf Vollprecht
Website: http://uberwriter.wolfvollprecht.de/
Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/uberwriter

How To Setup Joystick/Gamepad In Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:06:00 +0000

Here a little tutorial if you got joystick or gamepad and you want to use it in Ubuntu.
It is really easy you just need one app to make it work and another one to configure it to work with games that don'r support game pad or joystick.

First install jstest-gtk

After installing jstest-gtk joystick will be detected, you can use it for calibration and remaping buttons. It also support profiles so you can have specific configuration for every game.

jstest-gtk is a simple graphical joystick tester. It provides a list of attached joysticks, and for each one can display which buttons and axes are pressed, remap axes and buttons, and calibrate the device.

Now you can play, but if you want to play games that don't have support for joystick you can use Rejoystick to map keyboards keys on joystick

Rejoystick is a program that maps keypresses on your gamepad/joypad/joystick to keypresses on a keyboard when you are running X.

Download Rejoystick

If you are running 64bit system make sure that you install 64bit version or it will not work.

To use it start Rejoystick and set your configuration then exit Rejoystick.

Now when you want to use joystick with remaped keys type in terminal:

rejoystick -d

and to stop using it:

killall -9 rejoystick

Also if you want to use joystick as mouse check this tutorial.

This will work with generic joystick or gamepad i didn't tried it with Xbox or PS3 controller.

Control Mouse With Your Gamepad/Joystick

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 19:30:00 +0000

If you have gamepad /joystick you can you can use it to control mouse cursor.

To do this you need to install xserver-xorg-input-joystick

Open terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-joystick

Now log out and you can use your gamepad /joystick as a mouse

Now if you want to disable this function you can use this command

xinput --set-prop "DEVICE NAME" "Device Enabled" 0

to enable:

xinput --set-prop "DEVICE NAME" "Device Enabled" 1

To get the device name in terminal type:

xinput list

For tutorial on how to setup joystick in Ubuntu are remaping joystick keys check this tutorial.

Remove AMD/ATI Drivers "Testing Only", "Unsupported Hardware" Watermark

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:37:00 +0000

If you have installed latest beta AMD/ATi proprietary drivers *le wild watermark will appear in down right corner.

To remove it open text editor and paste:

#!/bin/sh
DRIVER=/usr/lib/fglrx/xorg/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.so
for x in $(objdump -d $DRIVER|awk '/call/&&/EnableLogo/{print "\\x"$2"\\x"$3"\\x"$4"\\x"$5"\\x"$6}'); do
sed -i "s/$x/\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90/g" $DRIVER
done

save it to Home folder with .sh extension

then right click on file > Permissions and check Allow executions file as program

Now open terminal and type:

sudo ./FILENAME.sh

*replace file name with name of file you saved

Log out and *le wild watermark will be gone

Clementin Global Menu Support

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:04:00 +0000

If you have Clementin music player installed (version 1.0) you can see that global menu support is disabled.

This is because of bug with global menu and QT applications. Now when this bug is fixed you can have global menu support enabled again.

To enable it you need to update to latest version of Clementin.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:me-davidsansome/clementine-dev
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Local File Syncing In Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 23:16:00 +0000

Now days cloud storage is very popular, from Ubuntu One, Google Drive, Dropbox, Apples iCloud or MS Skydrive.

This services offers file syncing and storage in internet. but what if you wan't to sync files locally or over local network with other computers or USB flash or backup hard drive.
One awesome tool for this purpose in Grsync.

Grsync works in simple way, you just select source and destination and click run.

You can also select many options like deleting files from destination if file is no longer available in source, preserve permission, owners and group for files, checksum, compresion, backup making.

Grsync also support profiles so you can have more than one configuration for syncing.

sudo apt-get install grsync

or CLI only

sudo apt-get install rsync

How To Preview Plymouth Boot

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Thu, 31 May 2012 23:03:00 +0000

If you like to change plymouth boot theme and you can't decide witch theme to use and you don't want to restart computer every time just to see it here is a way to preview plymouth theme without restarting computer.

You just need to install plymouth-x11

Or open terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install plymouth-x11

To show plymouth theme you will need to run script created by _khAttAm_

You can download script here.

Download script and paste in your home folder, make sure that "Allow executing file as program" in checked

Or via terminal:

sudo chmod +x plymouth

Now to run in type in terminal:

sudo ./plymouth

Preview will show for 10 second you can change this by editing script in line 22

Skype Ubuntu Integration

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:12:00 +0000

Skype is only chat app that i use and its integration with any desktop environment suck.
There is nice application called Skype-Wrapper that integrates Skype in Messaging Menu, system notifications and Launcher.

Skype notification integration with Skype-wrapper

To install Skype-wrapper open your terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:skype-wrapper/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install skype-wrapper

For me integration works good but only Launcher integration was making problem.
Skype was not visible in launcher and windows switcher ("alt-tab" menu) and because of that manipulation with multiple windows was impossible. Attention was in skype.desktop instead in skype-wrapper.desktop so i got 2 Skype icons in launcher.

I came to conclusion that problem was in skype-wrapper.desktop with default skype.desktop there was no problem but then you get problem when you close Skype and you can't "open"/show it again.

So first we are going to solve "bug" when you close Skype and you can't "open"/show it again.
Open terminal and start typing:

gedit ~/showskype.py

Text editor will open, now paste:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import dbus
# Get a D-Bus interface to Skype
bus = dbus.SessionBus()
skype_object = bus.get_object('com.Skype.API', '/com/Skype')
skype = dbus.Interface(skype_object, dbus_interface='com.Skype.API')
# Ask for permission to control Skype
response = skype.Invoke("NAME " + __file__)
response = skype.Invoke("PROTOCOL 8")
# Issue commands
response = skype.Invoke("SET WINDOWSTATE NORMAL")
print response

Save it and run this command in terminal:

chmod +x ~/showskype.py

Now type:

sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/skype

And in text editor paste:

#!/bin/bash
nbi=$(pgrep -c skype)
if [ $nbi -ge 2 ];then
~/showskype.py
else
/usr/bin/skype
fi

Save it and at end type this command:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/skype

Now when you again start Skype in will show current running Skype and not start new one.
Also it will ask for permission for using script.

Since we are going to use skype.desktop (original skype launcher) and not skype-wrapper launcher we need to edit one script in skype-wrapper so unread message counter and transfer progress on launcher works.

sudo gedit /usr/share/skype-wrapper/unitylauncher.py

and in line 14 change skype-wrapper.desktop to skype.desktop and save.

Now the final step is to set skype-wrapper to start when you log in.

In Skype go to Options > Notifications

Click on Skype Login > Advanced View and check Execute the following script

and paste:

/usr/share/skype-wrapper/skype-wrapper.py

Now when you log in to Skype skype-wrapper will start and you will get Messaging Menu, Launcher and notification integration.

Skype pop-ups will also show up, to disable theme go to Options > Notifications and click on notification that you want to disable and uncheck Display pop-up notification

Paw 12.04 Plymouth Theme

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:00:00 +0000

This is a modification of Paw-Ubuntu plymouth theme. I only changed colors to match Ubuntu theme.

You can download theme Paw 12.04 plymouth here.

To install it extract it to Home folder, open terminal and start typing:

sudo cp -R Paw-12.04/ /lib/plymouth/themes/
sudo update-alternatives --install /lib/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth default.plymouth /lib/plymouth/themes/Paw-12.04/paw-12.04.plymouth 100
sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth

From list choose Paw-12.04

And at the and in terminal type:

sudo update-initramfs -u

Preview:

F.lux - Colour Temperature Adjustment

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:26:00 +0000

f.lux is a app that changes/adapts colour temperature of your display during the day.
By adapting the colour temperature for the time of the day it will make your screen more viewable and it is good for your eyes.

f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you're in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.
Tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live. Then forget about it. F.lux will do the rest, automatically.

To install f.lux you first need to add PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kilian/f.lux
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fluxgui

f.lux is only not available for Ubuntu 11.10 but you can install one for Ubuntu 11.04 (https://launchpad.net/~kilian/+archive/f.lux/+files/fluxgui_1.1.8_all.deb)

When you first time start f.lux it will ask you for location (latitude and longitude)

You can easy find your latitude and longitude by clicking link in menu (http://stereopsis.com/flux/map.html) (here is another site if first one is not working http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html)

Now just leave f.lux running and it will do the rest.

At first you may think that this in not good for you but when you turn f.lux off and screen will become bright and you will notice that f.lux is good for your eyes :)

Customize Unity-2D In 11.10

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:22:00 +0000

Unity 2D have come a long way from last release, but it still it is not customizable like Unity 3D. You can do basic customization with Unity-2D Settings tool.

You can do more customization if you edit some source files.
Problem with this is that changes that you made are not permanent and they will be changed to default with new Unity 3D updates.

Before you start make backup of these files

sudo cp /usr/share/unity-2d/launcher/Launcher.qml /usr/share/unity-2d/launcher/Launcher.qml-backup

and

sudo cp /usr/share/unity-2d/launcher/LauncherItem.qml /usr/share/unity-2d/launcher/LauncherItem.qml-backup

Launcher customization.

If you want to customize launcher you need to edit Launcher.qml in /usr/share/unity-2d/launcher.
So to start open terminal and type:

sudo gedit /usr/share/unity-2d/launcher/Launcher.qml

Colour and transparency:
Find this part of code and change:

Rectangle {
Accessible.name: "background"
anchors.fill: parent
color: "black"
opacity: 0.66
visible: screen.isCompositingManagerRunning
}

colour - is for launcher colour (you can use hex colour code).
opacity - is for launcher transparency.

Now you are only left with launcher border, you can customize it in following part of code:

Image {
Accessible.name: "border"
id: border
width: 1
height: parent.height
anchors.right: parent.right
fillMode: Image.TileVertically
source: "artwork/background.png"
}

Here you can only change width of border, if you want to change colour and etc you need to change image located in

/usr/share/unity-2d/launcher/artwork/background.png

Now if you want to make launcher transparent best way is to add code for colour and border into comment to it will not be used.
So put

/*

before

Rectangle {
Accessible.name: "background"

and

*/

after

source: "artwork/background.png"
}

Remove trash, workplaces switcher.
If you don’t want trash or workplaces switcher you can remove theme by adding

/*

before

WorkspacesList {

and

*/

after

id: trashes
}

Remove back-light from icons in launcher
For this you need to edit LauncherItem.qml

sudo gedit /usr/share/unity-2d/launcher/LauncherItem.qml

Add

/*

before

Image {
id: tileBackground
property color color: defaultBackgroundColor

and

*/

after

.arg(1.0)
}
}

VirtualBox Guest Additions Available From Additional Drivers In Ubuntu 11.10

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 13:56:00 +0000

Today i decided to install Ubuntu 11.10 in VirtualBox to give it a try. After installation i saw a notification that additional drivers are available, i clicked and notice that Ubuntu have detected that i am running it in VirtualBox and offered to install VirtualBox Guest Additions. Awesome.

Now instead of standard Guest Additions installation you just go to Additional Drivers and install theme from there.

Installing Latest Proprietary Display Drivers In Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 10:56:00 +0000

Ubuntu allways come with latest stable proprietary drivers for your ATI or nVidia card but it may happen that ATI or nVidia release new drivers and you need to wait to be available via update manager and they may not be available until next release.
You can install theme manually and this is the way to do it.

Before you start installing new drivers remove current proprietary drivers. You can remove drivers via “Additional Drivers”

ATI

Go to ATI Drivers download page http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx select you card model and chose Linux x86 (32bit system) or Linux x86_64 (64bit system).

Download page with latest driver version will show

Now you need to build packages for current Ubuntu version. Move downloaded file to your home folder.
Open terminal and type:

sudo sh ati-driver-installer-11-8-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/natty

*file name of installer depends on drivers, best way it to type sudo sh ati-driver-installer and duble press TAB key to autofill file name. Then continue typing --buildpkg Ubuntu/ at end type Ubuntu cone name of version that you currently use.
11.10 - oneiric
11.04 - natty
10.10 - maverick
10.04 - lucid

at end you will get command like:

sudo sh ati-driver-installer-11-8-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/natty

This will create .deb packages that you will install.

First install fglrx** then fglrx-dev** and at end fglrx-amdcccle**

Or type this in terminal:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Now restart computer and new drivers should be running fine.

In case of 11.8 drivers in Natty (11.04) if found that there are no shortcuts to Catalyst Control Center. This is because Catalyst Control Center is installed to wrong directory and because of this is not visible in menu or cannot be started via terminal.
To use it go to /usr/lib/fglrx/bin and run amdcccle

nVidia

For nVidia is same process, go to download page http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
select you card model and chose Linux 32-bit or Linux 64-bit depend on witch you have installed.

Download page with latest driver version will show

With nVidia drivers you don’t need to build packages so you just run downloaded file, first copy file to your home folder.

Before you start installing you need to enter terminal mode and stop display manager.
CTRL + ALT + F1 to enter terminal mode.
In terminal mode login to your account.
Now stop diplay manager by typing:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

If you have Ubuntu 11.10 then:

sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm stop

And start driver installer:

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-280.13.run

*for file name is same as with ATI just type sudo sh ./NVIDIA and double press TAB key for auto-fill

Now follow the installation instructions.
When installation is completed just restart computer or start dispaly manager:

sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm start

If you have Ubuntu 11.10 then:

sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm start

Since this are new drivers they should work and fix bug but there may not work or have some bugs and you may need to remove them.
You can easy remove them via “Additional Drivers”

Fix The Delayed In Loading Of The Plymouth

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:40:00 +0000

I really hate the delay in loading plymouth boot when starting Ubuntu.
When it start loading first is black screen for some seconds then plymouth animation show for 1 sec and it done.

If you have some cool plymouth the you don't even see animation.

To fix the delay open terminal and type the following commands.

sudo -s
echo FRAMEBUFFER=y >>/etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
update-initramfs -u
exit

Now restart and you will see that plymouth shows when loading starts.

Hitler Is Briefed About GNOME 3

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:14:00 +0000

I for one like Gnome 3 and Gnome Shell. But i thinks it lacks of configuration, theme, fonts, icons....
Yes you can get Gnome Tweak Tool but this are some basic customization setting that all DE have.

To bring little humor in this debate here is how Hitler (from movie Downfall) reacted to Gnome 3.

Do you agree with Hitler? :D

What do you prefer Gnome 2 (Classic mode), Gnome 3 (Gnome Shell) or Unity?

Window List Gnome Shell Extension

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 10:22:00 +0000

This extension will put classic window list in the top panel.

Download Window List Extension

To install it extract archive to ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions or /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions
and reload Gnome Shell (ALT + F2 and type r)

Also make sure that "shell-version" in metadata.json file match your Gnome Shell version.

Homepage

Elementary Luna Gnome Shell Theme

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:50:00 +0000

This is a Gnome Shell theme inspired by Elementary OS.

GNOME Shell - Elementary Luna by *half-left on deviant ART

Installation

Get User Themes extension for gnome shell and go t Gnome Tweak Tool > Shell and select .zip file.

Or backup your theme directory first. Extract the zip file and rename "gnome-shell" directory to "theme" and copy to /usr/share/gnome-shell/. This path is usually where GNOME Shell is installed.

Restart GNOME Shell by Alt, F2, then type r and press enter.

Install .zip and .7z Support In Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:27:00 +0000

I was using Linux Mint for 2 releases now, i installed latest Ubuntu to test it and today i downloaded some .rar and .7z archives and in Archive Manager manager i was getting error that "Archive type no supported".

First i thought that archive is corrupted so i downloaded from other mirror and i got same error.
Then i remembered that Ubuntu don't come with support for .zip and .7z archives :facepalm: (Linux Mint have support for .zip and .7z by default).

To open .zip and .7z archives in Ubuntu open terminal and type:

For .zip

sudo apt-get install unrar-free

For .7z

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

Because this small things i switched to Linux Mint in first time.

Make Gnome Shell Extension Work After Gnome 3 Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:48:00 +0000

You have configured your shell, installed all necessarily extensions and updated system and you notice that extensions don't work anymore...

To fix this you need to change "shell-version" in metadata.json file for every extension.

Go to folder where are your Gnome Shell extensions located (~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions or /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions)

Now for every extension you have installed change "shell-version" in metadata.json.

"shell-version": ["3.0"],

change 3.0 to current version of gnome shell.

If you don't know Gnome Shell version type in terminal.

gnome-shell --version

Now to reload extensions pres ALT + F2 and type r

This don't mean that all extension will work, it can be that some extensions are no compatible with new Gnome Shell version.

Control Volume Via Keyboard

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:01:00 +0000

If have old keyboard that don't have media buttons you may want to create keyboard shortcuts witch will help you control volume on your system.

example of old keyboard without media buttons

You can do this in two ways.

Easy way:

Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts

Click on Sound and Media and assign shortcuts for Volume up, down and mute.
You can also assign shortcuts for media player playback.

2nd way:

This is also easy but in this way you can customize % of volume that is increased/decreased and you can do this changes to any sound channel on your system (master volume, microphone etc.)

This is easily done with amixer command.

First you need to compose command witch will change volume.

amixer --quiet set [channel] [%][+/-/toggle]

[channel] - is channel name on witch you are making volume changes

You can get you channels information by typing these commands in terminal:

amixer

alsamixer

[%] - is number of percent how much is volume changed

[+/-/toggle]

+ is for volume up

- is for volume down

toggle is mute or on/off (when you are using toggle you don't use [%])

Now if you want to change volume on channel "Master Front" command will look like this:

Volume up (1%)

amixer --quiet set 'Master Front' 1+

Volume down (1%)

amixer --quiet set 'Master Front' 1-

Mute/Unmute

amixer --quiet set 'Master Front' toggle

Now go to System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts

Click on Custom Shortcut > + button > and paste your command for every action (volume up, down, mute) and assign keyboard shortucts

Fix Clementine Notifications In Gnome Shell

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:46:00 +0000

Clementine is a multiplatform music player. It is inspired by Amarok 1.4, focusing on a fast and easy-to-use interface for searching and playing your music.

It works awesome on all platforms but in Gnome Shell it have bug with notification system in gnome shell, this cause that notification is not showed when song changes.

To fix this go to Clementine Preferences, navigate to Notifications and un-check "Include album art in the notification"

Now notification will show.

How To Share Folders In Gnome 3

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:59:00 +0000

In Gnome 2 to share folders on local network you would just right click and in properties menu chose "Sharing Options" and just click share and you're done.

But in Gnome 3 there are no "Sharing Options" this really sucks and in "Personal File Sharing" setting it always says that required packages are not installed.

Now the only friendly way to share folder is with Samba Server Configuration tool.

First before you start make sure that you have installed samba.

sudo apt-get install samba

Then install Samba Server Configuration

sudo apt-get install system-config-samba

Now to share folder click on + icon and chose directory you want to share.

Here you can chose is directory will be visible, writable and who can access is.

In samba server setting you can chose workgroup name, computer description and security setting.

Fix Sound Card Problems With Asus K50AB On Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:10:00 +0000

People who have Asus K50AB (HDA ATI SB VIA VT1708S) laptops know there are problem with sound on Ubutnu and other Linux distributions.
Main problems are that headphones jack in not working (not muting speakers) and microphone is not working.

You can fix this problems by installing latest Alsa Drivers Modules.

Open terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install linux-alsa-driver-modules-$(uname -r)

Now restart to take effect.

Also make sure that in Sound Preferences in Output for Connector is selected Analog Speakers

If you have problems with new Alsa Drivers you can remove them.

sudo apt-get remove linux-alsa-driver-modules-$(uname -r)

via answers.launchpad.net thanks to William King

Fullscreen Flash Video With Dual Monitors Workarounds

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:41:00 +0000

Because a "security feature" users with dual monitor setup can't enjoy watching fullscreen flash video on one monitor while doing stuff on other, in other word you can't multitask.

edit the flashplayer binary in a hex editor.

To get hex editor:

sudo apt-get install ghex

Now:

sudo ghex /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so

Now search for _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW and replace it with some other string of the same length, e.g. __ET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Restart firefox and enjoy!

Thanks for Tom for this tutorial.

~~There are no permanent fix for for this only workarounds.~~

Or

1. FlashVideoReplacer

This is Firefox only workaround.
What this does is replacing flash video player and playing video via default player on your system like Totem or VLC.
This way video is played via other player and that player will make video fullscreen even you do other stuff on other monitor aka multitask.

FlashVideoReplacerer works with YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, Ustream...

Download FlashVideoReplacer

There is also Greasemonkey script, Youtube without Flash Auto witch is similar as FlashVideoReplacer.

2. MaximizeFlash

MaximizeFlash is a Google Chrome extension witch allows you to resize a webpage flash element to fit the Chromewindow size, on the same page or in a new tab.

Now when video is resided you can press F11 for full screen. Video is now in "fullscreen" and fullscreen will not be interrupted if you do stuff on other monitor.

This only have one problem, sometimes Chrome don't respond to F11 (exit fullscreen) so you need to Alt +F4

Download Maximize Flash

There is similar extension for Firefox, Flash Game Maximizer

If you know better workaround for this issue post in in comments.

Plank - Lightweight Dock App

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Cizik) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:03:00 +0000

Plank is lightweight dock application for Linux. It is created by Docky team and it will be default Dock in Elementary OS Luna.

The main advances of Plank is simplicity and lightweight.

Lightweight - Plank's start-up time is instant this can significantly increase your start-up time if you replace Plank with Gnome Panel or other dock.

To install Plank first need to add Plank's PPA to software sources, open your terminal and paste:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ricotz/docky

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install plank

By default Plank have most needed items in dock, browser, text editor, movie player.
If you want to add more apps to do dock just start application, right click on app icon and click "Keep in Dock"

Plank currently don't support Drag & Drop feature.

Themes

If you don't like default theme you can get themes from Cassidy James's devianArt Gallery

To install new theme extract files to ~/.config/plank/theme
This will overwrite current theme, if you want to keep current theme you need to backup it.

Configuration

Plank still don't have UI for configuration so if you wan't to change stuff you need to edit configuration file manually.

Configuration file is located in ~/.config/plank/settings

In settings file you can change icon size, hide mode and on witch monitor should Plank show if you have dual monitor setup.

[PlankDockPreferences]
#The size of dock icons (in pixels).
IconSize=48
#If 0, the dock won't hide. If 1, the dock intelligently hides. If 2, the dock auto-hides.
HideMode=1
#The monitor number for the dock.
Monitor=0

If you want to change dock items order you need to edit .dockitem file located in ~/.config/plank/launchers

[PlankItemsDockItemPreferences]
Launcher=/usr/share/applications/beatbox.desktop
Sort=1001

Increase number to move item to right and decrease to move to left.

PS: if you want to remove "Pank" item from dock just remove plank.dockitem from ~/.config/plank/launchers

Create Folders

You can create folder items in Plank to group apps or similar.

Create .dockitem file and in Launcher= point to folder where you have .desktop items.

You can copy .desktop items from /usr/share/application

[PlankItemsDockItemPreferences]
Launcher=/home/ivan/Fixes
Sort=1004