Posted November 5, 2008 ago at 12:35 pm. 10 comments
In response to the current meme, here is what I do after I install/re-install a system.
1. Enable Medibuntu repos.
2. Enable Dropbox repo.
3. Install the follow extras.
sudo apt-get install htop powertop nautilus-open-terminal ubuntu-restricted-extras w32codecs banshee skype nautilus-dropbox ttf-liberation community-themes filezilla mplayer revelation
- htop - great process monitor
- powertop - Program to analyze power consumption on Intel-based laptops. Usually gets me a hour or so of extra battery life.
- nautilus-open-terminal - Open terminal on desktop with a right click.
- ubuntu-restricted-extras and w32codecs - Flash and other non-free viewers and codecs.
- banshee - My favorite music/media player for Linux.
- skype - VOIP Client
- nautilus-dropbox - Dropbox online storage application.
- ttf-liberation - Free font from RedHat, easy on the eyes.
- community-themes - A set of nice themes from Ubuntu 8.10.
- filezilla - GTK ftp/sftp program.
- mplayer - media player.
- revelation - Great password vault.
4. Configure a dark theme. I currently like Dust (from the community-themes package) and Shiki-Colors.
I’m also installing OpenOffice 3.0, but I would not advise that to Ubuntu newbies for now.
Continue the discussion at this forum thread.
Posted September 23, 2008 ago at 1:07 pm. 0 comments
The forum area, OMG PuRpLe pOnIeS, will be closing on October 1st, 2008 due to the large amount of resources required to manage this non-Ubuntu Linux area.
We will will continue to allow non Ubuntu related discussion to continue in the Community Cafe, even religious and political discussion as long as it is related to open source and Linux issues.
Feel free to comment here on this decision: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=926276
Forum Council Meeting Log: http://www.mikesplanet.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/fc_2008-9-21.txt
Posted August 5, 2008 ago at 10:55 am. 1 comment
I have heard people on asking on identi.ca on how to install the webkit version of gwibber. This is a quick cheat sheet I hope will help people get started.
1. Install bazaar and subversion to download app and some needed libraries.
sudo apt-get install bzr subversion
2. Add the following ppa for webkit or apt sources.list
http://ppa.launchpad.net/stemp/ubuntu hardy main
3. Install webkit and development libraries
sudo apt-get install libwebkit-1.0-1 libwebkit-dev
4. Download pywebkitgtk
svn checkout http://pywebkitgtk.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ pywebkitgtk-read-only
5. Install needed libraries and programs to compile pywebkitgtk.
sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf libtool libgtk2.0-dev python-dev python-gtk2 python-gtk2-dev libsexy2 libsexy-dev python-sexy libxslt1-dev
6. Goto pywebkitgtk-read-only directory - Configure, compile and install pywebkitgtk.
$ ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr
$ make
$ sudo make install
7. Install need libraries and programs for gwibber
sudo apt-get install python-cairo-dev python-simplejson python-egenix-mxdatetime
8. Download gwibber webkitui
bzr branch lp:~segphault/gwibber/webkitui
9a. Goto gwibber directory - Run gwibber
./run
9b. or install
sudo python setup.py install
Contribute to this guide at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/gwibber
Posted June 24, 2008 ago at 2:26 pm. 6 comments
Using dark themes in Gnome has always has some issues. Due to issues in Gnome and GTK apps, some application have problems like dark fonts on dark background, text areas grayed out, and multiple issues with OpenOffice. Here is a quick guide to solve many of the problems I encountered using dark themes in Gnome.
1. Firefox Fixes
Firefox has issues display certain CSS field properly with dark themes. This is a big problem in Firefox 2, but can still happen in Firefox 3. Install this userContent.css to /home/username/.mozilla/firefox/RandomProfile_name/chrome and restart Firefox.
2a. Dark System Themes (Ubuntu Studio)
The easiest solution for a dark theme in Ubuntu is to install the UbuntuStudio-theme package.
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme
or if you want the full metapackage with icons, GDM theme, etc..
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-look
The Ubuntu Studio theme is a beautiful theme created by the Ubuntu Studio team, which fixes many of the problem with dark themes in Gnome.
2b. Other Dark Themes
Since Linux is all about choice, we want to use other dark themes for Gnome and workaround issues these themes have. First, we still want to install the ubuntustudio-theme package.
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme
Then we will use UbuntuStudio theme on certain applications that have problems with dark themes (OpenOffice, Banshee, Thunderbird,etc…).
To get an application to use another theme you want to add the following to the command the launches a program “env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/UbuntuStudio/gtk-2.0/gtkrc“. Right click on the gnome menu applet and choose Edit Menus. Goto the application you want using a different theme (in this example OpenOffice Writer), right click the application and select Properties. Change the Command from
ooffice -writer %U
to
env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/UbuntuStudio/gtk-2.0/gtkrc ooffice -writer %U
OpenOffice Writer should now use UbuntuStudio theme instead of the system theme you have set.
If you have any comment or suggestion for this guide, please comment on this thread on the Ubuntu Forums.
Theme Details:
Theme: Moomex Ultimatum 0.4
Font: UnDotum Bold
Icons: Jungle Black
Wallpaper: Radiant from http://interfacelift.com
Posted June 6, 2008 ago at 4:11 pm. 1 comment
When I first went to college, I had dreams of getting into broadcasting. While I have a face for radio :), it was something that did not work out. This week the guys at the Fresh Ubuntu podcast (http://www.freshubuntu.com) had me on for an interview. We chatted about the forums, membership and other topics. It was truly a guilty pleasure being on the show and I had a great time. You can listen to the show here.
Speaking of revisiting the past, the new version of Dungeons and Dragons was released today. While I have not played in years, it does bring back great memories of high school and college. I also like that D&D tries to embrace the spirit of Open Source with the Open Gaming License. While I would prefer a Creative Commons type license, I do appreciate the effort.
Posted May 23, 2008 ago at 4:10 am. 0 comments
Last night at UDS we had dinner with the cavemen. I would suggest a visit to Restaurant Pravek if you ever visit Prague.
Posted May 20, 2008 ago at 1:27 am. 0 comments
Due to happenings at UDS we are moving todays Community Council meeting back 1 hour to 12:00 UTC.
Posted October 11, 2007 ago at 3:58 pm. 1 comment
The Ubuntu 7.10 release candiate is out (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyGibbon/RC). There is only 7 days before the final release of Ubuntu 7.10. Please file any bugs you find at Launchpad.
https://www.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
“If you find a bug and do not report it, then it is not a bug but only a complaint.” - Ancient programming proverb
