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Modify Ubuntu 12.04

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What's New? (October 22)

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Gnome Shell and Gnome Classic

This will install the new Gnome 3 interface called Gnome Shell. This will also install Gnome Classic, which is similar to Gnome 2 (the environment Ubuntu used to come with by default.) If you'd rather use a true fork of Gnome 2 then we highly suggest MATE instead of Gnome 3.

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

Official Page

KDE 4

This is a beautiful and interesting desktop environment. It is the default in Kubuntu

Note: The following command will install KDE 4 without all the applications usually included with a full KDE install.

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-desktop

Official Page

XFCE

This is a very lightweight and popular desktop environment. It is the default in Xubuntu.

sudo apt-get install xfce4

Official Page

Cinnamon

This is a new desktop environment dedicated to bringing the classic Gnome 2 feel to Gnome Shell. It is the default desktop environment in the new Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon

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

Official Page

Fluxbox

This is a very lightweight desktop environment.

sudo apt-get install fluxbox

Official Page

LXDE

This is a very lightweight desktop environment.

sudo apt-get install lxde

Official Page

MATE

MATE is a true fork of the much loved Gnome 2 desktop environment.

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-archive-keyring
sudo apt-get update
# this next line installs base packages
sudo apt-get install mate-core
# this next line install more packages (optional)
sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment

Official Page

Openbox

This is a very lightweight desktop environment.

sudo apt-get install openbox

Official Page

Preload

Preload is nice little application that could make your linux system a lot faster. Preload is an adaptive readahead daemon. It monitors applications that users run, and by analyzing this data, predicts what applications users might run, and fetches those binaries and their dependencies into memory for faster startup times.

Preload packages are available for almost all linux distributions. And it is available by default in the Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu. Alternatively, you can install it via Terminal.

sudo apt-get install preload

Thats it. Preload will run silently in the background. If you want to further tweak Preload, conf file is available at /etc/preload.conf.

Source

Show all startup applications

You'll notice that with Ubuntu 12.04 there are basically no applications shown in your Startup Applications program. I'm not really sure why they did this, but there is a way to make them appear again.

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop

Note: Disabling items will obviously make your login time faster, but don't disable anything you don't understand! It could cause problems with your system.

Some (quite a few actually) programs I suggest NOT disabling are: AT-SPI D-Bus, Certificate and Key Storage, Disk Notifications, Files, GNOME Settings Daemon, GPG Password Agent, GSettings Data Conversion, Mount Helper, Network, Onboard, PolicyKit, PulseAudio, Screensaver, Secret Storage Service, SSH Key Agent, User folders update, and Zeitgeist Datahub.

Optimize swap usage

As we know, swap is the area on a hard disk as part of the Virtual Memory. Swap temporarily holds memory pages that are inactive. Swap space is used when your system decides that it needs physical memory(RAM) for active processes and there is insufficient unused physical memory available. If the system happens to need more memory resources or space, inactive pages in physical memory are then moved to the swap space therefore freeing up that physical memory for other uses.

Because disks are much slower than RAM, this can lead to slower response times for system and applications if processes are too aggressively moved out of memory. So we can control the usage of swap area to speed up Ubuntu if there’s a large enough RAM.

There’s a swappiness parameter controls the tendency of the kernel to move processes out of physical memory and onto the swap disk. It ranges from 0 to 100, and when swappiness=0 it tells the kernel to avoid swapping processes out of physical memory for as long as possible, when swappiness=100 it tells the kernel to aggressively swap processes out of physical memory and move them to swap cache.

The default value of swappiness in Ubuntu is 60, and it recommends swappiness=10 for Ubuntu Desktop to improve overall performance.

First, check the value of swappiness in Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal with this command:

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

Temporarily change swappiness’ value to 10 using following command, and it will be reverted in next restart.

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

To permanently change this value:

gksudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

Search for vm.swappiness and change its value as desired. If vm.swappiness does not exist, add it to the end of the file like so:

vm.swappiness=10

Finally, save the file and reboot.

Source

BleachBit

BleachBit quickly frees disk space and tirelessly guards your privacy. Free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn't know was there. Designed for Linux and Windows systems, it wipes clean 90 applications including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari,and more. Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster. Better than free, BleachBit is open source.

sudo apt-get install bleachbit

Source

ZRAM

ZRAM creates a RAM based block device which acts as a swap disk, but is compressed and stored in memory instead of swap disk (which is slow), allowing very fast I/O and increasing the amount of memory available before the system starts swapping to disk.

This gives amazing performance improvements on systems with low RAM. Especially netbooks! However it is not known if this gives a beneficial effect to Solid State Drives (SSDs.)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shnatsel/zram
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zramswap-enabler

Source (It's recommended you read this if you would like a little more information on ZRAM.)

*Special thanks to Reddit user Reddickk for submitting this.

Image Converter

This patch for Nautilus allows you to resize images by right clicking on them.

sudo apt-get install nautilus-image-converter
sudo killall nautilus

Source

Mount Image Files

This patch for Nautilus allows you mount image (.iso) files by right clicking on them.

Just download and install this .deb file.

Then restart Nautilus

sudo killall nautilus

Source

Aliases

First of all create this file and open it in your favorite editor

touch ~/.bash_aliases; gedit ~/.bash_aliases

Add your aliases in this file. One on each line. Here's an example with a few of my favorites:

alias update='sudo apt-get update'
alias upgrade='sudo apt-get upgrade'
alias upgradef='sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade'
alias ins='sudo apt-get install'
alias rem='sudo apt-get remove'
alias search='apt-cache search'
alias autoremove='sudo apt-get autoremove'

Note: These will not work in any terminal windows/tabs you had open before adding the new aliases. Simply close the old ones or open new ones.

Source

Apt-Fast

Apt-fast is a simple command line utility that can make installation and upgrading of softwares in Ubuntu/Debian much faster.

Apt-fast make use of Axel app which accelerates HTTP/FTP downloads by using multiple sources for one file. Author claims that, apt-fast could make your installations and upgrades up to 26x faster! Do the following in Terminal to install it.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast

Close and re-open terminal once again and try to use 'apt-fast' instead of 'apt-get'. You will see the difference.

Source

Install/Remove software

If you know the name of the package you would like to install or remove, you can do it quickly from the terminal. We'll use supertuxkart as our example.

Install

sudo apt-get install supertuxkart

Remove

sudo apt-get remove supertuxkart

That's it! If you would like to use the terminal to search for the package name you are thinking of, refer to the Search available packages section.

Log out without root

This is a quick way to log out of your current session without needing root priviledges (no need for sudo.)

Note: Most applications will probably not give you any chance to save your current projects when using this command. Don't blame me ;)

Open the termianl and quickly type this:

pkill -KILL -u $USER

Tip: To make it easier to remember why not add alias logout='pkill -KILL -u $USER' to your bash aliases?

Source

Search available packages

There are two helpful terminal commands for searching for a certain application in the repositories. Let's use supertuxkart as our example

sudo apt-cache search supertuxkart

This will show us two possible packages:
supertuxkart - kart racing game
supertuxkart-data - data for the supertuxkart kart racing game

If you would like to see the latest version available in the repositories then use this command

sudo apt-cache policy supertuxkart

This will show us something like this:

supertuxkart: Installed: (none)
Candidate: 0.7+dfsg1-2
Version table: 0.7+dfsg1-2 0
500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe amd64 Packages

Which means version 0.7 from the precise/universe repositories is the newest.

Update and Upgrade System

Some people don't like using the Update Manager for their updates, and just want to quickly install everything. There are a few simple commands you should remember

Update repositories

sudo apt-get update

Upgrade all packages

sudo apt-get upgrade

Documentation

The Raving Rick wrote some (slightly outdated) very simple yet fully informative information on the basic usage of Unity. You can read it here.

Calculator in Dash

The Unity Scope Calculator aims to provide you with a fast and convenient way to do simple math without leaving your desktop.

To use it, hit the Super (Windows) key and type in your mathematical query. The scope will analyse the sum and present an answer.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-utilities unity-scope-calculator

Log out and then back in for the changes to take effect.

Source

MyUnity

MyUnity is a tool similar to Ubuntu Tweak but is used for the main purpose of customizing the Unity interface without using CompizConfig-Settings-Manager, which should be left for more advanced users.

Some of its useful features are:

  • Change Dash, Launcher and Panel transparency
  • Adjust Dash blur
  • Display Home, Trash, and mounted drives on the desktop
  • Adjust launcher size, backlights and hiding preferences
  • Tweak font settings, including size, RGBA and hinting

MyUnity was so stable and useful that it has been accepted into the 12.04 repositories. You can get it with a single terminal command!

sudo apt-get install myunity

Source

Toggle full/part size dash.

Open up the dash and hit the square icon at the top left of the screen. (The third icon from the left.)

Note: On much smaller resolutions, such as 1024x600, you may notice little to no difference between these.

Quicklists

There is a nice collection of Unity quicklists on AskUbuntu.

Note: Quicklists can be easily edited with MyUnity

Wikipedia Lens

Try this out to be able to quickly search Wikipedia articles in your dash.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-wikipedia

Log out and then back in for the changes to take effect.

Source

Activity Log Manager

Activity Log Manager is a graphical user interface which lets you easily control what gets logged by Zeitgeist.

It supports setting up blacklists according to several criteria (such as application or file types), temporarily stopping all logging as well as deleting recent events/documents.

It is now included with Ubuntu 12.04 by default. To access it, open your System Settings (from the Dash.)

Click on the Privacy icon!

Chromium Browser: Latest Version

Earlier this year the people managing the PPA for the latest version of Chromium (the open source version of Google Chrome) suddenly stopped updating the packages after version 18 was released. As of this post, Chromium has reached version 21 and is still improving via its rapid release cycle. Tobias Wolf has decided to pick up the process again with a new PPA!

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:towolf/crack
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Note: If you already had Chromium installed then you should run sudo apt-get upgrade instead of sudo apt-get install chromium-browser.

Clementine

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.

sudo apt-get install clementine

You can now also get a Unity music lens/scope for Clementine by getting it from the following PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install clementine-scope

Notes: You will have to log out before the scope will work. Also, the Clementine scope currently does not show album art. (Which is a bummer..)

If you enjoy this music player, perhaps you'll want to remove Banshee and its music lens.

sudo apt-get remove banshee

Source 1: Clementine Home Page

Source 2: Clementine Scope

Flash Player

There are a few ways to get Flash Player working in Ubuntu, but this seems to be the easiest method. This should automatically configure Flash for Firefox and all other browsers.

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

Note: Flash should also be available by installing the Ubuntu Restricted Extras.

GIMP 2.8

GIMP 2.8 has finally been released! It features the long-awaited Single-Window mode.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp

Source

Gnome Tweak Tool (Change Theme, Font, and Icons)

The option to change your font and icons was removed in Ubuntu 11.10 for whatever reason. There is a tool that can get the job done for you (and a lot more advanced options.)

Note: This now also installs Gnome-Shell and Gnome Classic.

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

Note: This program will be called "Advanced Settings" in your menu/dash,

Gnote

Tomboy was removed from Ubuntu 12.04's pre-installed applications because it used the outdated Mono library. Gnote is an improved port of Tomboy written in c++!

sudo apt-get install gnote

IPblock

IPblock is software similar to PeerGuardian or PeerBlock. It blocks certain lists of IP addressess from accessing your computer.

First we're going to download the file from SourceForge

wget -O ~/Downloads/iplist.deb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/iplist/iplist/0.29/iplist_0.29-1~squeeze_amd64.deb?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fiplist%2Ffiles%2Fiplist%2F0.29%2F&ts=1336280283&use_mirror=superb-dca2

Next get the dependency and then install it

sudo apt-get install libnetfilter-queue1
sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/iplist.deb

Source

Minecraft FIX!

Due to Java 7 being the default java install in Ubuntu 12.04, and a few other details, we need to manually update Minecraft's lwjgl files.

It's quite a few steps, but here's the simplest way to do everything from the terminal

Install OpenJDK 7 if you don't already have it

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre

Next need to login and run Minecraft at least once so it gets a full ~/.minecraft directory. If it tries to launch but you just see a grey screen, then you need to follow the next steps.

Let's grab the lwjgl library from SourceForge.

wget -O ~/Downloads/lwjgl-2.8.3.zip http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/java-game-lib/Official%20Releases/LWJGL%202.8.3/lwjgl-2.8.3.zip?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fjava-game-lib%2Ffiles%2FOfficial%2520Releases%2FLWJGL%25202.8.3%2F&ts=1336277720&use_mirror=softlayer

Wait for all that text to stop moving and say something about "saved" and then close that terminal window/tab.

This next terminal command is a combination of commands I've put together that will do the entire process of unzipping and updating for you.

cd ~/Downloads; unzip lwjgl-2.8.3.zip; cd lwjgl-2.8.3; cp -r native/linux/* ~/.minecraft/bin/natives/; cp jar/lwjgl.jar ~/.minecraft/bin/;cp jar/jinput.jar ~/.minecraft/bin/;cp jar/lwjgl_util.jar ~/.minecraft/bin/; echo Done!

Notes:

  • This also fixes the bug where you might start running and not be able to stop!
  • You shouldn't have to do this once Minecraft 1.3 comes out.
  • If you play Tekkit instead, replace all .minecraft text with .techniclauncher/tekkit in the code above.
  • If you play Technic, replace all .minecraft text with .techniclauncher/technicssp in the code above.

Minitube

Minitube is a neat application designed to search, browse, and download any YouTube video.

sudo apt-get install minitube

Nemo (Nautilus Replacement)

Nautilus 3.6 is removing much loved features, and will not be included in Ubuntu 12.10 or the new Linux Mint. The developers of Mint have decided to fork Nautilus 3.4 to keep all the features in, and start developing their own file manager. It's still at a very early stage, but is already proving itself to be far superior to Nautilus by fixing a lot of long-term bugs and improving usability.

We suggest that you read the source article to get much more information (like the new features) on this program before you try it out. Remember, it's still in a very early stage.

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

Source

Steadyflow

Steadyflow is a download manager that aims for minimalism, ease of use, and a clean, malleable codebase. It should be easy to control, whether from the GUI, command line, or D-Bus.

sudo apt-get install steadyflow

Source

Synaptic Package Manager

Synaptic is no longer included in Ubuntu by default. It's easy to get it back. This is a program only suggested for advanced users.

sudo apt-get install synaptic

TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is a program used to create encrypted partitions or virtual encrypted disks. It is recommended for advanced users only. Choose whether to install the 32 or 64 bit version. If you are unsure, go with the 32 bit.

32-Bit

cd ~/Downloads; wget http://www.truecrypt.org/download/truecrypt-7.1a-linux-x86.tar.gz; tar -zxvf truecrypt*.gz; ./truecrypt*86

64-Bit

cd ~/Downloads; wget http://www.truecrypt.org/download/truecrypt-7.1a-linux-x64.tar.gz; tar -zxvf truecrypt*.gz; ./truecrypt*64

Click install and you're done!

Source

Ubuntu Tweak

Ubuntu Tweak is a very useful application that allows you to easily configure many different parts of Ubuntu without having to deal with the terminal or gconf.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa ppa:ubuntu-tweak-testing/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Source

Wallch (Wallpaper Slideshow)

Ubuntu has come with a few wallpaper slideshows by default, but never allowed you to create your own. There used to be a few different programs to accomplish this with prior versions of Ubuntu, but now Wallch seems like the only option we currently have.

sudo apt-get install wallch

Open Wallch and click on Add or Add Folder to add the images that you want it to slide through, and then choose a timing selection. Press start and it will begin the slideshow.

Wallch must be opened for it to run the slideshow. If you would like it to run in the background once you've set your initial settings: Open the program "Startup Applications" and then click Add.

Name: Wallch
Command: wallch --constant

XScreenSaver

Note: This can get a little complicating. If you'd like to follow pictures then I'd suggest following the Source article.

Also: You will no longer be able to use the "Lock Screen" button in the system menu. You'll have to use the keyboard shortcut (which by default is Ctrl+Alt+L.) The final step of this section teaches you how to set XScreenSaver as the default shortcut.

Gnome 3 removed screensavers a while ago, and Ubuntu inherited the change. While a lot of people may not mind, there are some people that just love screensavers! While there are a few choices to get them back: XScreenSaver is the easiest and most reliable.

First we need to remove Gnome's screensaver package. After that we'll install XScreenSaver and some extra packages.

sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver
sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl-extra

You'll now have a program called "Screensaver" in your Dash or wherever you see your applications.

Next, we need to add XScreenSaver to your Startup Applications so it actually functions.

Open the program Startup Applications and click Add and input the following into the boxes:
Name: XScreenSaver
Command: xscreensaver -nosplash

One last thing. While this is optional, it is highly recommended. We need to set the keyboard shortcut for locking the screen to use XScreenSaver.

Open the program called Keyboard and select Shortcuts

Click on the little + icon in the box below and input the following into the boxes and then click Apply:
Name: Lock Screen
Command: xscreensaver-command -lock

Now click the word that says Disabled next to your new shorcut and then hold down CTRL + ALT + L. It should ask you to overwrite the current shorcut for Gnome Screensaver.

Source

Disable Guest Session

If you would like to remove the ability for a Guest to log onto your computer, simply run this command:

sudo /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-set-defaults --allow-guest false

To revert this simply run the command again with true at the end instead of false.

Thanks to Chris Van Hoof for submitting this!

Native Notifications For Chrome/Chromium

Chrome has its own built in notification system for certain web apps. They look the same across all operating systems, but why not make it give you a default Ubuntu Unity / Gnome Shell notification instead? There's a simple extension for that!

Official Extension Page.

Ubuntu Restricted Extras

Ubuntu Restricted Extras is a software package that allows you to install essential software which is not already included due to legal or copyright reasons.

It installs support for: MP3 and unencrypted DVD playback, Microsoft TrueType core fonts, Flash, codecs for common audio and video files, and unRARing files.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Note: If you're using Kubuntu or Xubuntu replace this command with kubuntu-restricted-extras or xubuntu-restricted-extras

Source

iFuse (iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone Libraries)

Note: This was tested in 11.10 and not 12.04. Try this at your own risk, and please e-mail me your results.

Okay, admittedly I'm not an iDevice user, and never will be. But from what I've looked into this is the proper way to get music programs like Rhythmbox to recognize your iDevice. If you have any useful information on this topic please email me at rowan [at] mindseeder [dot] com.

sudo apt-get install ifuse libimobiledevice-utils
idevicepair unpair && idevicepair pair

Note: If you're getting a -5 Error, try this:

sudo apt-get install libimobiledevice2-dbg libimobiledevice-dev libimobiledevice-doc libimobiledevice2
idevicepair unpair && idevicepair pair

Source

*Special thanks to Reddit user SpecialSause for submitting this.

Use Google Chrome's native PDF reader in Chromium

Download the latest Google Chrome dev build: 32bit | 64bit

Find where you downloaded the file. Right click it and click Extract.

Enter the extracted folder and also extract the file data.tar.gz

Navigate to data/opt/google/chrome and locate the file libpdf.so

Copy the above file to /usr/lib/chromium-browser/ (You may need to run a root nautilus window for this. Press ALT+F2 and type gksu nautilus /usr/lib/chromium-browser/ )

Start Chromium and type about:plugins into the address bar.

Search for Chrome PDF Viewer and click the Enable option.

Source

Chat

XChat IRC

IRC client

Pidgin

Multi-protocol instant messenger

Design

Blender

3D modeling software

GIMP

Image editor

Inkscape

Vector graphics editor

LibreCAD

2D technical drawing

Pinta

Image editor

Multimedia

Audacity

Audio editor

Clementine

Music player

F-Spot

Image viewer

Flash Player

Flash for all browsers!

VLC

Media player

Terminal

Guake

Quake-like terminal

IRSSI

Terminal based IRC client

Web

Chromium

Open source WebKit browser

Midori

Open source WebKit browser

Other

7Zip

Compression tool

CompizConfig

Edit Compiz and Unity settings

Filezilla

FTP program

Gnote

Notes (Tomboy port)

OpenJDK 7

Open source implementation of Java

RAR

Compression tool

Synapse

Fast application/file launcher

Synaptic Package Manager

We're bringing it back.

Just paste this line in your Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and be patient! You may have to answer a question or two before it begins.

No applications selected :(

Ubuntu users that want to do this via the Software center for more information on each application can just click this link. Software Center will open automatically.

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