Tag Archives: Gnome

How to install Ubuntu 12.04 on old computers with non PAE CPU

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When I tried to install Ubuntu 12.04 on an old ThinkPad X40 I was surprised to discover this warning on my screen:

This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU:
pae. Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.

In few words I wasn’t able to install Ubuntu 12.04 because the kernel on Ubuntu 12.04 was not supporting my CPU and I was really upset because I have always promoted Linux distributions as the most versatile and appropriate OS to keep using “old” hardware.

Sincerely, as described in an older post, I previously decided to install MATE desktop environment because the graphic cards on many laptops didn’t support Unity and Gnome 3 but this was the first time I had to renounce the installation of Ubuntu. I didn’t want to surrender to this difficulty (that appeared to me as a bug)!

First of all, I discovered that pae is “a feature to allow 32-bit x86 processors to access a physical address space (including random access memory and memory mapped devices) larger than 4 gigabytes“. After I clarified this point, I was not sure that my processor was totally inadequate to support Ubuntu 12.04.

After some web surfing I discovery that there are two easy solutions to avoid this problem.

1 – As first solution you can install Lubuntu (my choice) or Xubuntu on your computer then you can install the ubuntu-desktop using the Package Manager.

2 – If you prefer not to use the Package Manager you can install Ubuntu 11.04 or 11.10 and then upgrade Ubuntu to 12.04.

More in general, it is also possible to assume that if you have a non PAE CPU, your hardware could not be able to support the Unity desktop. For  this reason you can keep your Lubuntu – Xubuntu (based on the light but effective LXDE desktop) or switch your desktop environment to Gnome (the Classic, of course) installing the gnome package instead of ubuntu-desktop.

In any case, if you want to know if your CPU supports pae you have to open a Terminal and type:

grep --color=always -i PAE /proc/cpuinfo

If something like “flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8…” outputs on your Terminal, you have a pae CPU otherwise your CPU doesn’t support pae.  AddThis

The good third choice: MATE desktop environment. The traditional but rock solid solution for the Unity unhappy users (when also Gnome fails)…

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My first Linux OS was a Knoppix but I had so many problems with the hardware drivers, the LAN configuration and the monitor settings that I was really discouraged. After many tests I decided that Ubuntu was the right OS for my notebooks and I continued to use it without any particularly matters till Unity.

Unity is nice to see, intuitive but if you use your OS in a stressful way (I mean doing three or four different tasks all together: reading emails, talking with Skype and writing on LibreOffice), you spend too much time looking for the icon you need to launch the right program. The vertical monitor space has not enough room to visually show all the icons related to programs I use everyday. Surely this is my personal matter but I actually prefer the “old” graphic interface. For this reason I decided to install Gnome 3 but my vetust IBM Thinkpad crashed a couple of time in a week.

To my surprise also the Gnome Classic option encountered some crashes due to the amount and diversity of the software I installed on my laptop during the last years.

As usual, after some web searches I found a solution: MATE. This particular desktop environment is a fork of Gnome 2 and it really looks very intuitive and easy to use. If some software conflicts with the MATE environment, a pop-up message will appear on your sceeen and, if you have the patience to read the Details contained in it, you will able to solve your problems. In my particular case (don’t ask me why) it helped me to focus my attention on Conduit which caused the crashes on Gnome.

To easily install MATE, on almost every Linux distribution, you can read its wiki dedicated page or directly follow the below instruction if you use Ubuntu 12.04.

- open Terminal and type these command lines:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://repo.mate-desktop.org/ubuntu oneiric main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-getinstall mate-archive-keyring
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-core
sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment

When the Terminal finishes all the upgrade stuff, reboot your Ubuntu 12.04 and select MATE on the login screen (click on the upper right “gear” and choose MATE).

That’s all! Have a good week! AddThis

Searching a Gmail notifier for Ubuntu 10.04… an unpredictable Odyssey!

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Finding a versatile Gmail notifier for my laptop seemed to be not so difficult and, after a first quick search, I selected a bunch of software I believed interesting. But when I tested them I was not satisfied by they behaviour especially because they didn’t have many of the features I wanted.

First of all I started installing the Gmail software I found in the Screenlets repositories on my Ubuntu but it was not able to update itself. Probably the firewall denied to the screenlet to communicate externally. I didn’t want to spend much time (sic) on the research of a Gmail notifier so I decided do uninstall it.

My second option was Popper and reading the program description I believed tha t was really the right one but.. after the configuration I was not impressed by the final flexibility and interaction this software offers. Just to know, for a quick configuration you need Popper configurator that is in the

The next step was represented by KCheckGmail that is for KDE and runs properly also on Gnome but, in this case, the program is not updated with the last Gmail configuration parameters and so it is nice but useless..

Then I tried with Gmail Notify. The configuration is quick and easy but it offers poor results. I mean that you have just the subject of new emails and no possibility to visualize them with a simple mouse click if you haven’t previously done the login of your Gmail account using the browser.

Finally I installed cGmail through the Ubuntu Software Center and I found what I was looking for: a simple program which let me know about new emails and let me open them with a click. The graphic interface is basic but after a couple of hours wasted on searching an effective solution I was satisfied!

Last but not least, if you don’t want to install a Gmail notifier directly on your Ubuntu, consider to install the add-on Gmail Watcher  on Firefox.

Please, if you have better solution and you want to share them with us, don’t hesitate to comment this post. Thank you! AddThis

Video – Install Macbuntu on Ubuntu 11.04 by seaner992

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How to Install Inkscape on Linux (with special instructions for Ubuntu)

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Inkscape is an open-source SVG editor with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, Visio, etc. Supported SVG features include basic shapes, paths, text, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, node editing, svg-to-png export, grouping, and more. Its main motivation is to provide the Open Source community with a fully XML, SVG, and CSS2 compliant SVG drawing tool.
These are the founding goals for Inkscape:
- Full SVG (plus XML, CSS2) compliance
- Core written in C/C++
- Gtk-based user interface following the standards set out in the GNOME Human     Interface Guidelines (HIG)
- Emphasis on a small core and extensibility. Usually Inkscape’s extensions are always first-class so we can say “no” to features in the core without guilt.
- Open, community-oriented development processes
- Baseline is the Sodipodi Hydra codebase
Where a better solution cannot be found, default to the way Illustrator does it.

Probably the easiest way to install on Ubuntu is to use the apt command.
Open a terminal and type;
sudo apt-get update (enter)
sudo apt-get install inkscape (enter)

  • Ubuntu Linux Development Versions

As it approaches release, nightly i386 and AMD64 builds of the latest Inkscape development version are provided at http://ubuntu.cafuego.net. On that site, one should select the appropriate Ubuntu or Debian release, then the Inkscape link, and finally the provided package. AddThis mp3 link Flattr this!

Get Kindle for PC to Ubuntu (if you really don’t like Calibre)

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Amazon’s Kindle a popular portable e-book reader device, lately made Kindle for PC application that allows you to download and have books on your computer rather than having a portable e-book reader device. There’s only Kindle Windows version but the nice thing is you can have this application in Linux.
This is tested in Ubuntu 9 running Gnome. You can use different version of Linux, but first you must have Wine HQ installed to you computer. Then download the EXE file of Kindle for PC application in Amazon.
Install this with Wine HQ software loader and proceed to the normal installation, the same thing that you do in Windows environment.
Note:

- At your first run you won’t see anything at all

- Configure Wine first and add Kindle for PC as an application and make it run in Windows 98 mode

- If it won’t work, change to other mode

- When it opens successfully you have to input you Amazon email add and password to register the software.

But, please, don’t forget that if you prefer open source software, you can directly use Calibre, a powerful free software we posted a while ago. AddThis

Remote Control your Ubuntu

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Managing  the Remote Desktop on Ubuntu is quite easy.  You can allow users to access your desktop with VNC Viewer utility that is included in Ubuntu pack and can be downloaded for free also in Windows PCs. The Remote Desktop feature is very useful but follow, at least, one important safety tip: when your desktop remote control is enabled, the only defense against attacks is your firewall and it must be properly installed and configured correctly. In any case, do not forget that Remote Desktop still represents a first level security risk.

To tune up the Remote Desktop just follow these simple steps:

- go to System > Preference > Remote Desktop on the Gnome top menu:


- check the first two check boxes for remote to be enabled.

- if you want to connect your PC through the web and a  “Your desktop is only reachable over the local network” notice appears, please do not forget to forward Port 5900 to the IP you see a line below in the menu

- in the Security section, when selecting the “You must confirm each access to this machine” check box, you will be needed to be at the computer to allow the other person to access your desktop. If you are trying to remote access one of your own computer, you would want to uncheck this box

- do not forget that the password check box should always be checked and you should enter a real secure password You will be prompted for this password when you try to log on

- for a better safety be sure that an icon will be displayed on the Ubuntu upper bar when someone is connected

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How to repair the missing upper panel on Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook

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After my last update I was not able to visualize my upper panel on Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook. After some internet searches and tests I found these two solutions which were useful to me:

Solution A

- right click on the background and choose Change Desktop Background

- go to Visual Effects and click on Normal

Solution B

- ALT + F2 and when in Terminal type

gnome-panel

If you want to save the configuration and visualize the upper panel for the next time you use Ubuntu, please type in terminal:

gnome-session-save

I am sure there are better ways to solve this problem, so if you have suggestion you are free to comment this post. Thanks.

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