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1. Create a bash script with the following contents

#!/bin/bash
VirtualBox -startvm NameOfYourVirtualOS

Replace yourSUPassword with your password, and NameOfYourVirtualOS with the name that you have given to your virtual OS in VirtualBox.

2. Name it something like windowsXPGDM (if you want to run Windows XP), make it executable, and then copy it to /usr/bin.

$ chmod 755 windowsXPGDM
$ sudo cp windowsXPGDM /usr/bin

2. Go to /usr/share/xsessions and create a new file with the following contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=WindowsXP
Comment=My Virtual WindowsXP
Exec=/usr/bin/windowsXPGDM
Icon=
Type=Application

3. Save it with a name something like windowsXP.desktop.

4. Log out and you will see a new entry WindowsXP in your GDM session. You can now directly open VirtualBox session without even logging in to your Ubuntu machine.

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Download it, print it and paste it on your college flier board if you ever need to show your Linux love, Windows hatred, and bsod anger.

bsod Linux flier

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This wallpaper just got updated

If they don’t want to include any of the above for some reasons, than this wallpaper is far better than the current wallpaper:

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Everything is right about Ubuntu expect its look.  Changing its appearance is one of the highly requested features by many fans around the world. Fans were expecting a change with Hardy Heron, but it didn’t happen. They had a lot of expectations with Intrepid Ibex but it came with nothing more than small color changes and this non-sense wallpaper:

The ugliest wallpaper ever

If you hate Ubunut’s default appearance, here are some ways to make it look best of the all OSes

• Install Emerald Theme manager and download emerald themes from gnome-look.org. I’m using Scaled_Black_Mod
• Get rid of the bottom panel and replace it with some beautiful and productive dock. Here is a nice tutorial on how to do this.
• Get mails, weather, and system info right on your desktop with conky. After this ‘beauty’ comes as a bonus for you. Read my previous post on how to do this. I’ve included all the required files and fonts so it shoudn’t take you more than 10minutes.
• Download Ubuntu wallpapers to show your Ubuntu love. If you love nature and prefer some natural backgrounds instead, you can get them from devian art. Other place to look for the beautiful wallpapers are: InterfaceLIFT, and StudioTwentyEight
• If you want to get rid of the top menu, you can replace it with a nice looking cirular application menu.

After a couple of hours your ugly desktop should more beautiful then mine:

Desktop Screenshot with conky, AWN, Scaled Black mod theme, and Gnome-Do

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Update2: Links updated. Instead of serving files from MediaFire, DropBox is used. Also, those of you having problem with weather or anything else don’t forget to read the comments. Thanks to everyone using this post and spreading the words because of which my hosting server is down several times!

Ever wished that you had new mails notifications right on your desktop? Ever wished you knew the weather info right on your desktop? Ever wished you had your hardware information right on your desktop? Ever wished your desktop was productive and beautiful at the same time? Ever wished you didn’t have to use Mac4Lin theme to hide the ‘ugliness’ of Ubuntu’s native appearance? Ever wished you had a desktop that looked as beautiful as mine? Let’s fulfil your wish:

I have already talked about how to make your Ubuntu desktop look beautiful and productive. This time I will focus mostly on Conky. Conky is a lightweight system monitor for X. Not only monitoring system, with a little bit of scripting, it can be useful to know your new mails, weather info etc.

Here I’ve attached all the required files, attached my Conky configuration file and explained how to make your desktop look similar to mine.

[Updated]

1. Read my previous post about AWN and Gnome-Do.
2. Install Conky:
   $ sudo apt-get install conky
3. Download this file and save in your home directory(Right-click, Save Link As…save the file as .conkyrc)
4. Make a directory scripts in your home directory. Download these scripts, extract and copy them inside the directory you just created.
5. Download all these fonts, extract and copy them inside .fonts directory in your home directory. If you don’t have the .fonts directory, you need to create it. You might need to have administrative privileges to create this directory.
6. Open .conkyrc file. Look for this line:
   ${execpi 300 python ~/scripts/gmail_parser.py yourgmailusername yourgmailpassword 3}
7. Replace yourgmailusernamewith your username and yourgmailpassword with Gmail password. You might also need to install python-feedparser (thanks Onno and Neil for bringing this to my attention)
   $ sudo apt-get install python-feedparser
8. To monitor your hard disk and CPU temperature install lm-sensors and hddtemp
9. $sudo apt-get install hddtemp
$sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
10. Now you need to know the location id for your location for weather info. Head to http://weather.yahoo.com. Enter city or zip code for your location and click go. Copy the location ID from the adress bar. For examples the location id for Geneva, Switzerland is SZXX0013, for Kathmandu, Nepal is NPXX0003
11. Open pogodynka.sh file look for this line kod=USID0025. Replace USID0025 with the location ID you got from step 10 above
12. If you want the temperature in Celsius instead of Farenheit, find the following line:
    w3m -dump http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/"$kod".html | grep -A21 "Current" | sed 's/DEG/°/g' > $plik
    Replace it with:
    w3m -dump http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/"$kod"_c.html | grep -A21 "Current" | sed 's/DEG/°/g' > $plik
13. Create a new empty file in your home directory. Name it weather. Leave the file as it is; do nothing with the file.
14. Bring Run Applicationdialog box (Alt+F2) type conky to launch it
15. If everything goes right, your desktop should be looking much ‘cooler’

More info:

• My wallpaper, The Farm House, is from http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/details/1545/the_farmhouse.html
• Emerald Theme is Scaled_Black_Mod from gnome-look.org
• More variables for conky
• Settings variables for conky

[If you want to share your desktop and want me to show the best looking desktops on my blog, shoot an email to admin[at]quicktweaks[dot]com along with the screenshot of your desktop and the conky file (if you wish). If you decide to send your conky file, don’t forget to delete your gmail username and password. Sharing is learning!]

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Installing Avant Window Navigator:

1) Be sure your system supports Desktop Effects. I’ve seen people searching the internet for hours to find out – Why AWN doesn’t even start? Try typing compiz in a Terminal window. What does the output say? If it says something like …aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity then you are out of luck.

2) Get AWN. If you are using Gutsy then you need to enable Unsupported updates (gutsy-backports) in your software repository list. Go to System>Software Sources. And in the Updates tab check Unsupported updates (gutsy-backports) Close the dialog box to let Ubuntu update the repository list automatically. If you are using Hardy you don’t need to do anything as AWN has now been included in universe/gnome repository.

Now you are ready to issue the following command:
sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator awn-manager

You should be now able to run AWN from Applications>Accessories menu but AWN doesn’t look so much stylish and productive without the applets.

3) To install additional applets, add following two repositories to your software sources list (for both Hardy and Gutsy)

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu/ gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu/ gutsy main

As soon as Ubuntu finishes reloading the information of the software repositories, you will be ready to issue the following command:
sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr awn-manager-bzr

4) Now to add applets to the dock bar, right click on the edge of the dock bar, click on preferences go to Applets tab and add your favorites applets.

II. GnomeDo

GonmeDo is a launcher similar to QuickSilver for Mac and Launchy for Windows which allows you to run/open the applications/location installed in your Gnome desktop with a couple of key strokes. It searches for the installed applications with a keystroke and then you can perform the general actions such as open/play/run etc. I promise you will forget about opening the run application dialog box.
What I liked about GnomeDo is its ability to learn. Suppose, if you have installed Avant Window Navigator, aMSN and Amarok and you regularly use Amarok, hitting A will bring you Amarok but not other applications.

Installing GnomeDo

1) If you are using Gutsy you need to add two lines in your software sources list:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ubuntu gutsy main

Hardy users are lazy (oops! I mean lucky)

2) Issue the following command to install GnomeDo:
sudo apt-get install gnome-do

You should be now able to run GnomeDo from Applications>Accessories menu. Once it is started, you can launch it with a shortcut Super+Space

III. Beauty Tips Tweaks:

You are now ready with the ‘productive’ factor. For making your desktop look a little more beautiful, you need to tweak your system a bit:

1) Remove bottom pane
You don’t need it anymore. Remove it by right clicking on the pane and selecting Delete this panel

2) Enable top panel transparency:
Enable transparency of top panel. R-click on the panel, select Properties. On the Background tab select Solid Color and set full transparency.9076321895604071

3) Enable 3D look and transparency of AWN

R-click on the edge, select Preferences:
On the Task Appearance tab set: Text Color to White; Text Shadow Color to #1B3B12 and opacity to 225; Text Background color to Black and opacity to 37; Arrows Color to White and opacity to 102

On the Bar Appearance tab set: Look to 3D look; Tick Enable rounded corners; Bar angle to 45; Bar height to 48; Icon offset to 10; Main border Color to Black and opacity to 106; Internal border Color to White and opacity to 35; uncheck Show separator between launchers and tasks

On the Glass Engine tab set: Gradient First step color to #454545 and opacity to 29; Gradient Second step color to #010101 and opacity to 68; Both Highlight First step and Second step colors to White and opacity to 11

4) Download beautiful wallpapers from here http://www.studiotwentyeight.com/wallpapers.htm

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