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Posts tagged ubuntu
Chromium contrast problem – Ubuntu
May 31st
Most of the monitors have a poor contrast with light shades of grey and whites. It gets irritating when you have to find the scrollbar while going through long pages in Chromium browser for Ubuntu. The scrollbar looks something like this before and after the fix.
Before
After
Using Gnome color chooser doesn’t change it in Chromium. The Google Chrome extension specifically for Ubuntu Chromium users helps rectify this problem. Though a lot of incompatibility and crashes are reported in the comments, I had incompatibility wit some sites but no crashes yet. [EXTENTION]
This makes the scrollbar blue like the blue clear looks style. The vivid blue on grey makes spotting it easy on long pages also.
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- 6 Google Chrome Ubuntu Themes (Radiance, Ambiance, Elementary, Dust etc) (omgubuntu.co.uk)
- Chromium to be default browser in Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition (omgubuntu.co.uk)
- Chrome 5 release includes first stable Linux version (linuxfordevices.com)
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Google DNS – Speed up surfing
Dec 7th
Google introduced a public global DNS (domain name system). Its free to use. What more? It has a non-messy address:
8.8.8.8 OR 8.8.4.4
Advantages:
- Speed up your browsing experience.
- Improve your security.
- Get the results you expect with absolutely no redirection.
So what’s all the fuss about, huh? Well, like google says “The DNS protocol is an important part of the web’s infrastructure, serving as the Internet’s phone book: every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading, so your computer may be performing hundreds of lookups a day.“ [Here]
Setting it up:
Now comes the important part, setting it up! Using it to speed up your internet. How to Geek explains it in a detailed manner (with couple of screenshots). It covers setting the new public DNS for vista (almost the same for XP), Ubuntu and also adding the DNS to your DSL router. MacOSX users may go HERE for a setup guide.
Need DNS telephone support? Call google:
- 877-590-4367 in the U.S.
- 770-200-1201 outside the U.S.
Windows Shell Replacement
May 4th
I spend half of my time with Windows and the other half with Ubuntu. However when I last use Ubuntu and switch back to Windows I just can’t bear the windows shell’s unstability and other related issues. So transforming desktop into completely replaced with a new interface, reffered to as shell replacement and can be a very good idea if you are still using windows shell.
For first timers using a shell manager like shellon which would let you choose which shell to use when starting up makes your work easier.
Apparently Cairo shell another Windows shell alternative appears to be the most used shell to replace the windows UI. Cairo is really easy to install, anyone with no eperience in shell replacement can replace using the cairo desktop. Other downloads like the Cairo desktop, start bar, desktop concept, desktop switching and revolution wallpaper.
Another good and easy to install shell is the Talisman. Helps to keep your desktop more organised.
Black box is a window manager for the X Window System shell with lot of development activity currently going.It is fairly simple to make it look really cool using premade skins from the forum, though it isn’t basically to look cool. It has a dedicated forum to dicuss problems, bugs and to find modifications and cool plugins for the shell.
If you want to make your desktop 3D, with physics enabled. You can try the recently released simple to use Bumptop shell. A boon for microsofts surface. It makes your desktop easy to organise if you prefer to keep a lot of files for easy access there. Still I could not adjust with it due to its first release and lot of lack of some essential features. But it is really worth a try, nothing to loose.
Aston shell-It replaces the standard Windows Desktop
and provides you with a host of new features, such as Sidebars, clock, weather monitor, animated buttons, transparency effects and much more. Several other partial shell replacements like aston menu and panels are available at the Aston’s website. Aston shell with panels make the dektop look really cool.
Shells like Flyakite(Mac OS X transformation pack), Vista transformation pack and 7 transformation pack are more or less self explainatory.
Previously discussed sharpE now SharpEnviro shell is another good to use shell.
Lastly, FYI it is also possible to transform your Windows environment to KDE or Gnome shell (Linked to the tutorials) with limited usability. Not recommended for non experienced.
9 Jaunty Jackalope adventures + LVPM
Apr 28th
Completed my Ubuntu 9.04 copy download early in the morning, took a huge 6 hrs to complete due to no indian mirror. My DVD drive stopped working. Other than virtual disk (Daemon tools 
) I had no other way to install it through WUBI. First new thing i noticed was the new loading bar with animated grungy texture stripes. Then the new login screen.
As everyone knows Windows rots with time and it was time to discard my copy now. The part I was worried about was loss of Ubuntu installation, since I installed it using Wubi inside windows. It was then I stumbled (literally) over a way to upgrade the virtual wubi installation to a true ext3 independent partition.
“The Loopmounted Virtual Partition Manager allows users to upgrade their existing Wubi or Lubi installation to a standard Ubuntu system by transferring all data, settings, and applications from the original install to a dedicated partition. The advantages of upgrading using LVPM are better disk performance and reliability, and the ability to replace the original operating system with Ubuntu.” I couldn’t resist trying.
step1: Installed the pre boot partion tool for linux.
step2: restarted, selected partion tool from the boot menu, and resized an NTFS partion by cutting out a 10Gb ext3 partition.
step3: restarted to wubi installation of Ubuntu, downloaded and installed LVPM
step4: Started LVPM and selected trnsfer>>SDA(number) of your ext3 partition.
step5: Watch the show, reboot
the tutorial is well explained here
You do it all right and get an error17 or error15 during the boot. I guess they forgot to mention the menu.lst changing part.
EDITING MENU.LST
to change it go to Wubi installation again. Now perform a test by downloading this script to desktop and copy paste this code to the terminal:
sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh
this will produce results.txt in the desktop, now suppose you installed in SDA9 then note down the bold code from results.txt like this:
/dev/sda9: UUID=”09b8370d-d20e-45c1-8951-dfb906bb0e4a” TYPE=”ext3″
now to open the menu.lst and grant permission to change do this
sudo mkdir /media/sda9 sudo mount /dev/sda9 /media/sda9 gksudo gedit /media/sda9/boot/grub/menu.lst
now Change
# groot=()/ubuntu/disks
to
# groot=the number you noted in the above step
change all three occurrences of
root ()/ubuntu/disks
to
uuid the number you noted in the above step
Save the file and reboot. Hopefully you will now be able to boot into Ubuntu.
This post isn’t copied (people may doubt the pro look of the post), it was painstakingly compiled from different forums and ultimately I could boot into the independent Ubuntu. the various sources of information are linked in the post to give due respect to the place where knowledge originated from.
Purpose of writing down this experiment was- for my personal future reference and to help ubuntu newbs (like me) to find information at one place regarding transfer of Wubi installation to a ext3 independent partition.
7 Things I loved in Ubuntu
Feb 1st
Its barely been a week since I installed Ubuntu and I can’t see reasons to boot XP.
1. Almost virus free compared to windows: I don’t hesitate to connect pendrives and stuff to my computer anymore. Wat more? You can see viruses creeping in mass data storages only waiting to get blasted.
2. The height to customisation: I can sit for hours customising my desktop, I love to do it and when you are in Ubuntu you can’t see any limits to customising your desktop. Only if you are connected to web and have Ubuntu installed . Wat more? You can customise it to look exactly look like MacOSX leapord or Vista.
3. Open source applications: Superb open source applicaion which provide as better replacements to their ‘buy’ counterparts. eg: GIMP, Open office, compiz fusion, Beryl, Gparted. Wat more? You get awesome free games and with ATI supporting openGL in ubuntu it like…….ahhh.
4. Huge workspace: With number of desktops running you just can’t think of finishing up the workspace. Wat more? Compiz Fusion’s 3d windows, cube desktop make an awesome combination.
5. Damn good eye candy: Ubuntu is a host for deadly software which make ppl burn their eyes when they come to see your Rig. Compiz Fusion is one such great tool for adding prudiest eyecandy for least memory usage. Wat more? the minimise, maximise, close, open etc animations of applications are in your control now. You can explode, burn windows while closing or make a paper plane out of the window when minimising or when you get bored shake windows to experience the inertial physics.
6. Panels: Put panels everywhere and anywhere of any size to access things at the tip. Wat more? Panels can be made transparent, or you can make your own tileof the panel size and tiled horizontally to put as a background of the panel.
7. Strech icons: Right click and strech icons. Use text files like sticky notes or put small pics in desktops or anything you can imagine.
