Tag Archives: Ubuntu Software Center

How to manage the GRUB and purge old Kernel versions on the start-up menu

After a kernel update, you find the start-up menu populated with extra lines related to all the old kernel versions plus the current one. To manage the start-up manager and safely remove old kernels you have to manually operate on it.
First of all you have to double-check what is the current kernel version.
Open a Terminal and type:
uname -r
The result will be something similar to: 2.6.32-35-generic
Then you will go to the boot directory through the command:
cd /boot ls vmlinuz*
The next step will be to obtain more information about old kernel you have on our PC:
ls vmlinuz*
Now in the Terminal you have results similar to these:
vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic vmlinuz-2.6.32-35-generic
vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic
As last step you have to remove all the old version of the kernel using this command:
sudo apt-get remove linux-image-X.X.XX-XX-generic
where “x” is the obsolete kernel version you want to purge. In my specific case the proper command line I used was:
sudo apt-get remove linux-image-2.6.32-21-generic linux-image-2.6.32-24-generic linux-image-2.6.32-25-generic linux-image-2.6.32-26-generic
Last but not least go to System –> Administration –> StartUp Manager (available for installation on Synaptics or on Ubuntu Software Center) and select your OS choice in the Default Operating System menu. That’s all!

Auto Mount Drives at System Startup on Ubuntu

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Ubuntu is capable of reading and writing files stored on Windows formatted partitions, but partitions must be ‘mounted’ before they can be accessed each time you start up the system. With these steps, you can auto mount the drives or partitions without the need to manually mount them for access.
Install Storage Device Manager if it has not been added.
– go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Ubuntu Software Center.
– enter pysdm in the Search Box.
– select Storage Device Manager, click the “Install” button.
– go to System > Administration > Storage Device Manager.
– extend the list of sda and select the sda you want to auto mount, click ‘OK’ to configure.
– click the “Assistant” button.
– uncheck “Mount file system in read only mode” and keep “The file system is mounted at boot time” checked.
– click the “Mount”, “Apply” then “Close” button, and restart the system.
In case you wish to remove the auto-mount of a certain drive or partition, you can similarly use Storage Device Manager to do the setting.

Note: If you need to identify disk partitions by label, paste ls /dev/disk/by-label -g in Terminal, or to view partition sizes and file systems, enter sudo fdisk -l. Disk Utility mentioned in “Name or Label a Partition” also gives you a glance of device numbers, partition types, sizes and labels.

Set Aero Glass Effect in Ubuntu

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In Ubuntu you can set nearly the same aero glass effect to window borders with alpha transparency as available in Windows 7:

– press Alt+F2 to bring up “Run Application” window.
– type gconf-editor into the box, click “Run” to bring up Configuration Editor.
– browse to apps > gwd, look for “metacity_theme_active_opacity” on the right panel.
– change the value in “metacity_theme_active_opacity” from 1 to 0.75 (or smaller such as 0.5 for more transparency).
Then go to System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager:
– select “Effects” from the left panel.
– tick “Blur Windows” and click the “Close” button. (Note: default values in Blur Windows can be applied.)
Note: If the aero glass effect doesn’t work, check if you have updated your display driver. To check, go to System > Administration > Additional Drivers, activate the recommended graphics driver and restart the system.