Tag Archives: Ubuntu

Terminate unresponsive programs on Ubuntu

Xkill is part of the X11 utilities pre-installed in Ubuntu and a tool for terminating misbehaving X clients or unresponsive programs. You can easily add a shortcut key to launch xkill with the steps below:
– Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts.
– Click the Add button to create a custom shortcut.
– Enter xkill to both the Name and Command boxes and click the Apply button.
– Click on Disabled at the xkill row in the Keyboard Shortcuts window (Disabled is then changed to New shortcut…).
– Press a new key combination, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+X (New shortcut… is then changed to Ctrl+Alt+X).
– Click the Close button.
Xkill is ready for use. Press the above key combination to turn the cursor to an X-sign, move the X-sign and drop it into a program interface to terminate the unresponsive program, or cancel the X-sign with a right-click.

Changing the default text editor on Ubuntu

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There is a few software that will use the editor command to find out what text editor to use. Example commands will be dch to add a new .deb changelog entry, revision control softwares when prompting for commit a message …
There is basically 2 ways for changing the default editor:

1. System Wide
Run Terminal and type:
$ sudo update-alternatives –config editor
And then choose whichever editor you want to be default.

2. User Level
As a user, you cannot change the setting for the whole system, but you can add an alias for editor to let say vim.
Open and edit ~/.bashrc and add:
alias editor=vim
Next time you will open a bash prompt, your default editor will be vim.

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.

Installing on Ubuntu Linux

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.

Recovering root password under Linux with single user mode

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It happens sometime that you can’t remember root password. On Linux, recovering root password can be done by booting Linux under a specific mode: single user mode.
This tutorial will show how to boot Linux in single user mode when using GRUB and finally how to change root password.
During normal usage, a Linux OS runs under runlevels between 2 and 5 which corresponds to various multi-user modes. Booting Linux under runlevel 1 will allow one to enter into a specific mode, single user mode. Under such a level, you directly get a root prompt. From there, changing root password is a piece of cake.
Some Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu for instance, offer a specific boot menu entry where it is stated “Recovery Mode” or “Single-User Mode“. If this is your case, selecting this menu entry will boot your machine into single user mode, you can carry on with the next part. If not, you might want to read this part.
Using GRUB, you can manually edit the proposed menu entry at boot time. To do so, when GRUB is presenting the menu list (you might need to press ESC first), follow those instructions:
– use the arrows to select the boot entry you want to modify.
– press e to edit the entry
– use the arrows to go to kernel line
– press e to edit this entry
– at the end of the line add the word: single
– press ESC to go back to the parent menu
– press b to boot this kernel
The kernel should be booting as usual (except for the graphical splash screen you might be used to), and you will finally get a root prompt (sh#).
Here we are, we have gained root access to the filesystem, let’s finally change the password.
As root, changing password does not ask for your old password, therefore running the command:
# passwd
will prompt you for your new password and will ask you to confirm it to make sure there is no typo.
That’s it, you can now reboot your box and gain root access again.

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.

Enable Windows 7 Aero Snap in Ubuntu

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In Windows 7, you can click and drag a window to the left or right edge of the desktop and it will fill half of the screen, or snap a window to the top edge of the desktop and it will be maximized.

In Ubuntu, you can click and drag a window to the left, right or top edge of the desktop to achieve the same result.

In addition to CompizConfig Settings Manager, install WmCtrl if not added:
– go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Terminal.
– enter sudo apt-get install wmctrl
– enter password when prompted.
– go To System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager.
– select “General” from the left panel and click “Commands”.
In Command line 0, 1 and 2, paste the following codes:

Command line 0, paste:

WIDTH=`xdpyinfo | grep ‘dimensions:’ | cut -f 2 -d ‘:’ | cut -f 1 -d ‘x’` && HALF=$(($WIDTH/2)) && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,0,$HALF,-1

Command line 1, paste:

WIDTH=`xdpyinfo | grep ‘dimensions:’ | cut -f 2 -d ‘:’ | cut -f 1 -d ‘x’` && HALF=$(($WIDTH/2)) && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,$HALF,0,$HALF,-1

Command line 2, paste:

wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

In the same window, click “Edge Bindings” tab.
Change Run Command 0, 1 and 2 from “None” to “Left”, “Right” and “Top” respectively.
Click “Back” button and select “General Options”, change “Edge Trigger Delay” to about 500.

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.

Name or Label a Partition using Ubuntu

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Nautilus file manager shows the root directory as File System for your Ubuntu system partition. If you have other partitions (or volumes), it shows them as xx GB Filesystem if they’re not named or labelled.
Using Disk Utility is one of the effective ways to name a partition easily:
– go to System > Administration > Disk Utility
– select the item Hard Disk.
In the Volumes section, click a partition you want to label then:
– click “Edit Filesystem Label” (Note 1)
In the Label box, enter a name, e.g. Data-Disk, and click Apply.
The file manager should now show the partition label, such as Data-Disk, instead of xx GB Filesystem.

Note 1: If the option for “Edit Filesystem Label” is not shown, click “Unmount Volume” before hand. In case you can’t unmount a volume, try Storage Device Manager to unmount it. See Auto Mount Drives at System Startup.

Note 2: This tip is for naming a partition using Disk Utility, use other advanced features such as format, edit or delete partition with caution as they can delete data on your disk.

Set your Ubuntu Desktop Fully Transparent Panel

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When you set the panel to be transparent in the default Ambiance theme in Ubuntu 10.10 or 10.04, you will find that some panel items’ backgrounds are not transparent, but you can make them transparent and consistent with others, following these steps:
– Go to Applications (or Main Menu) > Accessories > Terminal.
– Enter: cp -R /usr/share/themes/Ambiance ~/.themes/
– Enter: gedit ~/.themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps/gnome-panel.rc (for Ubuntu 10.10) OR gedit ~/.themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc (for Ubuntu 10.04), to open the file with gedit.
– Search for this line bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = “img/panel.png” (for Ubuntu 10.10) OR bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = “panel_bg.png” (for Ubuntu 10.04)
– Comment out the line by placing a # at the beginning of the line, like this: # bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = …
– Save the file.
– Go to System > Preferences > Appearance, switch to the other theme and then back to the Ambiance theme.
Note: If you’d like to change to the Radiance theme, replace Ambiance with Radiance in the above command lines, but you’d like to change to the New Wave theme, then enter: cp -R /usr/share/themes/”New Wave” ~/.themes/ in step 2, enter gedit ~/.themes/”New Wave”/gtk-2.0/gtkrc in step 3, search for and comment out this line bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = “Images/Panel/PanelBarLong.png” in steps 4 and 5 respectively.

Ubuntu to Windows XP folder sharing

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Computer networks are sometimes comprised of various OS and while operating a network made up fully of Ubuntu desktop and server computer systems would definitely be enjoyable, some community environments can consist of both Ubuntu and Microsoft Windows systems working together.
If you want to make an Ubuntu shared folder be accessible to Windows XP, run the NTFS configuration tool on the drive.
Don’t forget that it is advisable to have admin rights to do that modification.
Select application->Accessories->Terminal
then type the following: