Quick Tweaks » Hardy

Ubuntu 8.10 hits beta; the look lets the fans down again

ashokgelal — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:58:03 +0000

Ubuntu 8.10 intrepid Ibex beta hit the market today but its appearance ONCE AGAIN came as a great disappointment. Since this is a beta version, we can’t expect any change in the features now. All the works, which will be done until the final version hits the market on 30th October, will be only to fix the bugs. So, just keep your finger corssed until Jaunty Jackalope is released. If you are disappointed with the current appearance of your favorite Linux distro, here are some ways to give it a new fancy life again.

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

Let’s hope Jackalope comes in a new look.

If you have a beautiful looking desktop, share with us. Shoot an email to admin[at]quickktweaks[dot]com with the screenshot(s) of your desktop. Beautiful ones will get published.

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Fixing XServer After Hardy Updates

ashokgelal — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:12:14 +0000

Since I loaded Hardy into my system a month ago, it has been my routine job to fix xserver after nearly every updates. After many desperate attempts to fix the things, I’ve found a way to fix it. I don’t claim that whatever I’ve done should work for others but it is better to give it a try once rather than ending up with reinstalling Ubuntu. Here is what I do:

I always backup my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to something like /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bckup
When something is broken, I often find that my xorg.conf file has been modified. To find out whether there is any modification, I issue:
stat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
If there is any, I list the changes:
diff /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bckup -y –suppress-common-lines
I then undo the modifications. Those who aren’t comfortable with command lines can try meld. It is a graphical frontend for diff command. It couldn’t be more easier to merge/remove changes in two versions of same file. It is in the Universe repository so you should get it by issuing:
sudo apt-get install meld
After the modifications have been undone, I restart Hardy. Most of the time I get my xserver fixed with everything working fine – color depth, screen resolution etc.
If restarting the system does nothing other than greeting with that dialog box – Ubuntu is running in low graphics mode, then i try to reconfigure xserver by issuing:
sudo dpkg reconfigure xserver-org
It will ask you a couple of questions, clicking on default option will be OK
After it gives a ’successful’ message, time to restart. I can see the changes immediately – login screen spanning to my whole screen.
I need to enable the drivers for my card by going to System>Administration>Hardware Drivers
Finally, enabling my nvidia card, restarting once again and going to System>Preference>Screen Resolution to set the correct resolution, gives my pretty looking xserver back again.
The next important task is to create the backup of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file again.

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Three Little Things To Make Your Ubuntu Desktop Beautiful and Productive

ashokgelal — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:30:33 +0000

How can you make your Ubuntu desktop look beautiful and be productive at the same time? With these three things:

I. Avant Window Navigator:
Avant Window Navigator (AWN) is a Mac like dock-bar which (as of now) sits horizontally on the bottom of your screen (development is on the way for vertical support) helping you to launch programs and locations. You can install applets to make it more productive such as checking email, reporting local weather, showing time and calendar etc. Let’s get our hands dirty (to make the desktop beautiful)

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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