Bring Unity 'Dodge Windows' Behavior Back on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin

If you used Unity on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, you might know what Unity Dodge Windows behavior is. When there is no window opened, the Unity launcher will remain appear on screen, but when there is a window overlap it, it will disappeared, magic!

Unfortunately, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Presice Pangolin misses such feature. When you activate the auto hide option, the Unity launcher will remain hidden until you hover your pointer on it. But, don't worry, you can bring it back with a patched Unity created by Jonathan French (ojno). This patch also brings an ability to be able to click a program's icon on the Launcher and minimize/unminimize that window, just like many dock applications do!

Installation instruction
To install this patched Unity, simply run the following command:

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ikarosdev/unity-revamped
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If you want to revert back to the official Unity release, please run the following command:

• sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
• sudo ppa-purge ppa:ikarosdev/unity-revamped

Don't forget to logout and login back to see the changes :)
via: Ubuntu Forums

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Upgrade To Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin With or Without Internet Connection

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin released few days ago. If you are using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx or Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, you can upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin without installing from scratch. There are two methods we can use, upgrading via Internet or upgrading via alternate Ubuntu CD (without Internet connection).

1. Upgrading with Internet connection
Ubuntu users who have high speed Internet access can upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin easily by typing the following command on Linux Terminal:

• update-manager -d

The Update Manager window will appear and inform that New Ubuntu release '12.04 LTS' is available. All you need to do is just click the "Upgrade" button.

2. Upgrading without Internet connection
Well, if you have slow Internet connection, you might want to try upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin using alternate install CD. The alternate install CD allows you to perform certain specialist installations of Ubuntu. It provides for the following situations:

• setting up automated deployments
• upgrading from older installations without network access
• LVM and/or RAID partitioning
• installs on systems with less than about 384MiB of RAM (although note that low-memory systems may not be able to run a full desktop environment reasonably).

Download Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin alternate installer CD

There is an install script inside the alternate installer CD, just execute it to perform the upgrade.

Regards :)

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Ubuntu Derivatives: Kubuntu 12.04 LTS and Xubuntu 12.04 Have Been Released!

Two Ubuntu brothers a.k.a derivatives: Kubuntu 12.04 LTS and Xubuntu 12.04 LTS have been released. Let's start with Kubuntu! Kubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu which uses K Desktop Environment (KDE) instead of Unity, it provides beautiful and elegant desktop experience for its users. Kubuntu 12.04 LTS will be supported for 5 years.

What's new in this release:

• Improvements in speed and rendering in Dolphin
• Redesigned power management configuration - settings are now Activity-aware
• New Icon Tasks provides an alternative icon-only taskbar
• Amarok 2.5 updates
• Rekonq and OwnCloud Updates
• And more!

For detailed information about what's new in Kubuntu 12.04 LTS, please click here!

Download Kubuntu 12.04 LTS

In other news, Xubuntu 12.04 LTS is now available for download. It will be supported for three years per Xubuntu LTS plan. Xubuntu is a simple, fast, and lightweight alternative of Ubuntu which uses XFCE as its desktop environment.

Xubuntu 12.04 LTS release notes:

• The i386 images use a non-PAE kernel. The non-PAE kernel will not be available in future Xubuntu releases.
• Some default shortcuts have been changed, added and deleted. See New default shortcut keys for the complete list.
• Pavucontrol is used instead of xfce4-mixer due to latter not supporting Pulseaudio
• The Alacarte menu editor is installed by default and will work with Xfce-related menu items as well
• Lots of appearance improvements, including new branding, fixes for Greybird, Ubiquity, Plymouth, LightDM and Terminal theming
• Syncs, updates and patches from Debian and upstream, including xfce4-power-manager, Ristretto and gmusicbrowser
• xfdesktop4 updated to support single-click opening and thumbnail support for the desktop
• xfce4-settings has been updated to include the new mouse and touchpad dialog

Download Xubuntu 12.04 LTS

Enjoy :)

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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Released, Download Here !

Ubuntu 12.04 Codename Precise Pangolin which has been scheduled to be released today (April 26th 2012) has been released just now , See the changes and improvement here until wait official review from Ubuntu.Buzz! soon.

Upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 (Ubuntu 11.10/10.04 LTS)
To upgrade Ubuntu 11.10 or Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to Ubuntu 12.04 you can press press Alt+F2 then type "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box that appear. Update Manager should open up and tell you the new distribution is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

Download Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Download Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin Image trough following link, A full list of available release also available in BitTorrent files :

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Ubuntu Tweak 7.0 "Precise Tweak" Has Been Released!

After two months of development, Ubuntu Tweak 7.0 so called "Precise Tweak" has been released with full support for the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. There is an important thing to know that Application and Source center is coming back in this release. As we know, application and source center had lost in Ubuntu Tweak 0.6.

Beside of that great thing, there are many improvements and new features added in this release:

• Four great features have returned: App Center, Source Center, Templates and Scripts
• Source Center is integrated with PPA Purge feature and App Center with “Installed Apps” view
• Improved Janitor with cleaning apps cache
• Global fuzzy search
• QuickLists Editor to edit the Unity Launcher
• Login settings for 12.04
• More Unity settings and new Workspace settings

For further information about Ubuntu Tweak 0.7, please read the official announcement.

Installing Ubuntu Tweak 0.7
Ubuntu Tweak 0.7 is available for both Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, simply run the following command to install it:

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

Let's rock with Ubuntu :)

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Things to do after installing Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)

Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) is ready for release in just few hours. Not to forget that this is an LTS release with the longest support cycle offered by Canonical till now.

After you are done with the installation, there would likely be a huge list of things you need to do to make your system up and running. Here is a list of the most important things  that you need to do after a successful installation.



Install Updates


Just because you 've installed the latest version of Ubuntu, it doesn’t mean that you have all the upgrades to the softwares that were bundled. Open the terminal and run the following

• $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Install Additional (missing/required) drivers

If you are using any graphics/video card or sound card or wireless then you must install the appropriate drivers/softwares for that. Ubuntu 12.04 can automatically detect graphics card and a pop-up window may appear with the suggestion but you need to make sure that you’re installing the right driver for the device.

Also If you are using a broadcom Wirless device like me on your machine, you need to install the broadcom kernel resources to make your device work on Ubuntu.

• $ sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

Install 'ubuntu-restricted-extras'

The metapackage 'ubuntu-restricted-extras' contains nearly everything essential that you would otherwise need to find and install individually, as of now that is codecs, Flash plugin, Microsoft fonts and 'unrar'. Just run this command to install it

• $ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Install codecs

You will need this to play your mp3 and video files

• $ sudo apt-get install non-free-codecs libxine1-ffmpeg gxine mencoder totem-mozilla icedax tagtool easytag id3tool lame nautilus-script-audio-convert libmad0 mpg321 mpg123libjpeg-progs

Add Medibuntu repositories

Medibuntu is a packaging project dedicated to distributing software that cannot be included in Ubuntu for various reasons, related to geographical variations in      legislation Medibuntu regarding intellectual property, security and other issues. by adding Medibuntu repositories you will be able to install many softwares like Google-Earth , opera ,Win32codecs , Msfonts etc.,

• $ sudo -E wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list

• $ sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

to add medibuntu packages to Ubuntu software center, you need to enter the following command

• $ sudo apt-get install app-install-data-medibuntu apport-hooks-medibuntu

libdvdcss2, to play encrypted DVDs

To play encrypted DVDs, the libdvdcss2 package is essential. libdvdcss is a simple library designed for accessing DVDs like a block device without having to bother about the decryption. You need Medibuntu repositories to install libdvdcss2

• $ sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 && sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/./install-css.sh

Enabling Flash support on your browsers

To be able to watch some videos and see flash website in your browser (Firefox, Opera..), you need to install flash plugin,

• $ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

Google Chrome comes with a bundled flash plugin installed, so if you only use Google chrome you may not need to install the flash plugin.

Install Java7

First you need to remove openjdk

• $ sudo apt-get purge openjdk*

Now you can install Java7 by adding the following repository:

• $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eugenesan/java

• $ sudo apt-get update

• $ sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

Install Ubuntu Tweak

Ubuntu Tweak is a must have application for Ubuntu, it is an application to config Ubuntu easier for everyone. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default desktop environment doesn’t provide.

• $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa 

• $ sudo apt-get update 

• $ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Install MyUnity

MyUnity is a must have configuration tool for Unity , to install enter the following commands

• $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:myunity/ppa

• $ sudo apt-get update

• $ sudo apt-get install myunity

Install Gnome Shell

Not a fan of unity, you can install Gnome-Shell in Ubuntu 12.04 from repository by using this simple command:

• $ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

This will install the latest version of gnome 3.4 (but not all gnome 3.4 apps, like Evolution 3.4 etc, as these are not supported in Ubuntu 12.04 )

Install Gnome Classic desktop

Install the classic GNOME desktop by installing the gnome-panel package

• $ sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

Install gnome tweak tool

Since Oneiric 11.10, the built-in, default Appearance dialog, while simple enough, doesn't present you with many options to tweak the themes, fonts, etc. Gnome Tweak Tool is what you need for this stuff.

• $ sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

 

Install gnome shell extensions

To get most out of gnome shell you need to install some of the finest gnome shell extensions, to install the gnome shell extensions of your choice, open  https://extensions.gnome.org/ using firefox and you can install the extensions of your choice directly from the browser.

Install Faenza Icon theme

Undoubtly the finest Icon theme for Ubuntu, you can download it using the following PPA

• $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tiheum/equinox

• $ sudo apt-get update

• $ sudo apt-get install faenza-icon-theme

Install Faience Icon theme

This is yet another beautiful theme based on Faenza with redesigned Iconset, to install use the following commands

• $ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:suraia/ppa

• $ sudo apt-get update

• $ sudo apt-get install faience

Install KDE and XFCE desktops

If you are not a fan of Unity or Gnome shell or want multiple desktop environments on your machine, then you can give a try installing KDE  and XFCE

For KDE

• $ sudo apt-get install kde-standard

For XFCE

• $ sudo apt-get install xfce4

Install Synaptic Package Manager

If you are a old user of Ubuntu and have nostalgia of using good old synaptic package manager, run the following command to install the synaptic package manager

• $ sudo apt-get install synaptic

Enable Global Menu for LibreOffice

By default, Global Menu integration for LibreOffice is not enabled. That's because there are still some issue that might occur when using it. However, you can just try your luck with it and if doesn't work acceptably well, just disable it again. To enable it, just run:

• $ sudo apt-get install lo-menubar

And here is a Quicklist of some of the essential apps that you may want on your Ubuntu machine, you can either find it from Ubuntu software center or may need to get it from its respective websites (like Chrome, Skype etc.,)

• VLC
• GIMP
• Pidgin
• Chromium Browser
• Opera
• Google Chrome Browser
• Skype
• Banshee
• Wine
• Dropbox
• Adobe Acrobat reader

Also don't forget to make a search for your favorite apps and a quick tutorial on how to install these apps on ubuntubuzz blog that we have updated you time to time.

Best of Luck for your new Install.
 

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Ubuntu 12.04 Changes and Improvement

Ubuntu release is always awaited by its enthusiasts, not only the Final but also the beta and alpha version are always have a concern, Ubuntu 12.04 'Precise Pangolin' for Final which scheduled to be released tomorrow was already expected by a lot of people including me. At each release of ubuntu, before the its coming to the Final version is always performed alpha and beta version, in normal conditions a final version should will not be much different from the beta version in terms of Appearance/look, Function and its Menu.

To prepare for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin release, here following summary of changes and improvement that you will meet in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin for Final, the following data are collect from our observation in the alpha and beta releases (self opinion), and we gather from other ubuntu supporter blog (thanks to: techdrivein, omgubuntu, webupd8, and softpedia).

User Environment Improvement/Changes (Unity 5.8)

• Unity Dash's Home Screen has Changed , Unity Dash's default home screen has changed. Now, it shows 'Recent Apps' first, 'Recent Files' next and lastly, your most recent Downloads. Take a look at screenshot below and see how the Dash homescreen used to look like prior to recent changes.
• HUD is a Default Now, The HUD now adapts to your Launcher auto-hide and icon-size settings.

• Unity Dash Quicklist, As if to compensate for the loss of older homescreen, Unity Dash now has quicklists support, which is really nice.
• New Home Folder Quicklist.
• Brand New Video Lense.

• Launcher Icons Can Now be Resized, Size of launcher icons can now be changed directly changed from 'Wallpapers' menu. No need to install CCSM just to do that anymore.
• Default Launcher Behavior Changed, This is perhaps the biggest visible change to new Unity. Launcher won't be in the 'dodge windows' state anymore (by default) and instead will be 'always visible'.
• Dodge Windows is Not Even an Option Anymore, In the same Appearance window we talked about earlier, there is now a new 'Behavior' tab where you can set the Launcher to autohide.
• Changes in Alt + Tab Behavior.
• Gnome Classic (properly referred to ‘GNOME Fallback’) feel like never change.
• Redesigned Sound Settings panel offers an option to switch off the Sound Indicator.

Application Improvement/Changes

• Ubuntu 12.04's Comes wiuth new Configurable Privacy Menu.
• New Multi-Monitor options.
• Updated LibreOffice and Firefox packages.
• Some updated apps from GNOME 3.4.
• Qt-based Ubuntu One desktop client.
• Goodbye Banshee, Welcome Back Rhythmbox!.
• Landscape is now Integrated into Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

Other Improvement/Changes

• Ubuntu 12.04 is too big to deliver with CDs, One of the more notable developments is that it looks like developers are planning to target a 750 MB ISO image for Ubuntu 12.04, meaning that the software will no longer fit on a CD, according to a report on The H. Instead, users will need either DVDs or USB drives to install it. The change may seem shocking, but it's actually an increase of only 50 MB.
• 64-Bit by Default, Also notable in Ubuntu 12.04 is that users will be offered the 64-bit version by default, though the 32-bit version will still be available. Version 3.2 of the Linux kernel, meanwhile, will serve as the heart of Ubuntu 12.04, according to a report on Phoronix.
• A Wayland Preview, While Ubuntu 12.04 will still depend on X.Org as its main server, an experimental Waylandpreview running an X11 server may be available as well, Phoronix reports.
• No Mono by default, along with the removal of the banshee, ubuntu 12.04 not included mono by default.

Welcome Mr. Pangolin :) 

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Ubuntu 12.10 'Quantal Quetzal' Release Schedule

Has not been complete with Ubuntu 12.04 'Final' which is planned to be release tomorrow, canonical has been issued Ubuntu 12.10 which is shceduled to be release in October 18th 2012.

Mark Shuttleworth has announced the codename for  Ubuntu 12.10 as 'QuantalQuetzal' . Mark says via his blog, “I give you the Quantal Quetzal, soon to be dressed in tessellated technicolour, now open for toolchains, kernels and other pressing preparatory packages.”

Here the list of important dates of Ubuntu 12.10 'QuantalQuetzal' release, Some list may be changed according to canonical policy, The full list of dates is as follows :

• Alpha 1 – June 7th
• Alpha 2 - June 28th
• Alpha 3 - August 2nd
• Beta 1 - September 6th
• Beta 2 - September 27th
• Ubuntu 12.10 - October 18th

For official schedule or changes, check following official page.

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TBO Gnome Comic Creator: Easy and Fun Application to Draw Comic

TBO Gnome Comic Creator is an application which allows us to draw comic easily and funny way. With this application, we can make a greeting comic, jokes or humors, or just playing around with our children. Comic created with TBO Comic Creator can be exported to PDF, SVG, and PNG for easier distribution. Inside it, there are many ready-to-use characters, callout, templates which make TBO Gnome Comic Creator easy to use even for newbie users.

Install TBO Gnome Comic Creator on Ubuntu
Ubuntu users and its derivatives can install this cool application by adding getdeb repository:

• echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu oneiric-getdeb apps" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/getdeb.list
• wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -
• sudo apt-get update

Please change "oneiric-getdeb" to suit your need e.g. if you are using Ubuntu Natty simply change to "natty-getdeb".

Once getdeb repository has been added, run the following command to instal TBO Gnome Comic Creator:

• sudo apt-get install tbo

Once installed, TBO can be accessed via Graphics section on the menu.

How to use it?
TBO Gnome Comic Creator has a simple GUI, you should not find any difficulties when use it. But, if you need a starting point, please watch this video:


Enjoy :)

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Ubuntu 12.10 Codenamed "Quantal Quetzal" a name for Quality

Mark Shuttleworth announced the codename for  Ubuntu 12.10. This Ubuntu Linux release due out in October will be codenamed the Quantal Quetzal.

Mark says via his blog, “I give you the Quantal Quetzal, soon to be dressed in tessellated technicolour, now open for toolchains, kernels and other pressing preparatory packages.”

Ubuntu 12.10 will focus on the quality of the popular Linux distribution, among other features.

Apart from Quality Quantal Quetzal, will also come with refreshing look and feel with the new Icon theme & typography.


The Ubuntu 12.10 release schedule puts the official release out on the 18th of October.

Coming up in early May will be the Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal UDS (Ubuntu Developer Summit) out in Oakland, California.


Meanwhile, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS “Precise Pangolin” will be released this Thursday.

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Add Separator Line Between Commands on Linux Terminal

If you are a person who often perform daily tasks via command line interface, you might have ever performed multiple commands at once (usually by adding "&&" between them). But, you might be confused when analyzing the output of every command and when the command is finished. So today, I'd like to show you how to add a handy separator line between commands on Linux Terminal.

As you can see the picture above, at the end of every command there will be a separator line followed by the time completion of related command. Are you interested in it? OK! Please open your text editor and paste the following code:

• # Fill with minuses
• # (this is recalculated every time the prompt is shown in function prompt_command):
• fill="--- "
• 
  
• reset_style='\[\033[00m\]'
• status_style=$reset_style'\[\033[0;90m\]' # gray color; use 0;37m for lighter color
• prompt_style=$reset_style
• command_style=$reset_style'\[\033[1;29m\]' # bold black
• # Prompt variable:
• 
  
• PS1="$status_style"'$fill \t\n'"$prompt_style"'${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$'"$command_style "
• 
  
• # Reset color for command output
• # (this one is invoked every time before a command is executed):
• trap 'echo -ne "\e[0m"' DEBUG
• 
  
• 
  
• function prompt_command {
• 
  
• # create a $fill of all screen width minus the time string and a space:
• let fillsize=${COLUMNS}-9
• fill=""
• while [ "$fillsize" -gt "0" ]
• do
• fill="-${fill}" # fill with underscores to work on
• let fillsize=${fillsize}-1
• done
• 
  
• # If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
• case "$TERM" in
• xterm*|rxvt*)
• bname=`basename "${PWD/$HOME/~}"`
• echo -ne "\033]0;${bname}: ${USER}@${HOSTNAME}: ${PWD/$HOME/~}\007"
• ;;
• *)
• ;;
• esac
• 
  
• }
• PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command

Save the above code as ".bash_ps1" (don't forget the dot character) and place it in your Home folder.
Lazy copying the code? Download the ".bash_ps1" file here.

Now, edit your ".bashrc" file which is located in your Home folder and append the below code:

• if [ -f "$HOME/.bash_ps1" ]; then
• . "$HOME/.bash_ps1"
• fi

Save the change and run the following command to "apply" your work:

• source ~/.bashrc

Regards :)

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EasyHotspot: Open Source Hotspot Management System

EasyHotspot is an open source hotspot billing management system. It is a web based application created with PHP and MySQL. EasyHotspot aims to provide simple. easy to use, and less configuration billing management system.

It comes with two variants:
1. Full distro package
It is a full operating system which is developed on the top of Ubuntu distribution (XFCE). This variant contains many open source software which is bundled into one package. The hotspot manager front end is  built from Code Igniter Framework, FreeRADIUS to perform AAA process, Chillispot to process user authentications, MySQL as a Database Management System, PHP as a programming language, and Apache as a web server.

2. Application only
If you don't want to install a new operating system on your computer, simply choose the web interface (application only) package and read the following documentation to install
Note: The documentation is created by non English speaker person, so you might find many incorrect spelling and grammar there.

Who needs EasyHotspot?
Anyone who wants to build a hotspot a.k.a wireless network for example coffee bar, hotel, school, public library, or commercial internet cafe that use wireless Internet connection might need EasyHotspot. It can help you build and manage your billing system!

Download EasyHotspot

Regards :)

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Create high quality EPUB files using LibreOffice Writer with Writer2ePub extension

Users across the world are reading books in numerous formats like PDF, MOBI, ePub, etc, nevertheless ePub is the most commonly used electronic format, on top of it, its free and open.

Writer2Epub is an extension useful to create EPUB files from various filetypes that can be opened with LibreOffice Writer (DOC, RTF, etc), meaning the extension easily creates various files to EPUB using LibreOffice Writer.

The advantage of this plugin is the generating of high-quality EPUBs, fixing, in the same time, formatting errors and various issues, creating EPUBs compatible with the most common eReader programs/platforms.

If you are looking for a program to convert one or more files with arbitrary format to ePub format, keeping the original formatting rules and layout, then you should give it a try.

The plugin is actionable via three top-left icons: Writer2Epub (create the EPUB file), Metadata (edit metadata values, as well as adding cover images) and Preferences (fonts, file split, image quality, etc).


Installing Writer2Epub extension

Download the Writer2Epub extension from here. After download you just need to double-click on the oxt file. LibreOffice will open and it will install Writer2Epub. You can also install Writer2Epub by opening LibreOffice and selecting, menu Tools > Extension Manager...

 

Once the installation is completed, you must restart LibreOffice.

For a detailed desciption on using the Writer2Epub Extension you can refer to the official wiki page.

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Cairo Dock 3.0 Has Been Released, Install It on Ubuntu!

Cairo Dock is an dock bar application which brings animated and beautiful app launcher to your desktop. It can run on GNOME, KDE, and XFCE desktop environment.

Cairo Dock as known as GLX Dock now get the latest version 3.0 which brings a lot of enhancements and many bug fixes:

• The taskbar has been greatly enhanced.
• The Log out applet has been rewritten, now allowing you to switch users.
• The control of the dock from the keyboard is now very powerful:
• many shortkeys have been added in several applets.
• you can activate a launcher by pressing a shortkey + its number.
• all shortkeys can now be managed in a single place in the configuration window.
• The Sound Menu from Ubuntu has been integrated into the Sound-Control applet.
• A new Twitter applet lets you tweet in one click.
• A new applet to inhibit the screensaver in one click.
• Separators are transparent to click in 'Panel' mode.
• Cairo-Dock now uses GTK3, for a better integration in a Gnome desktop.
• Few additions to the DBus API.
• Text drawing (e.g. with Clock) has been improved.
• Icons from user icons theme are now loaded with the right size.
• The new default theme with a panel is now included in the core package.
• It's possible to donate to support the project!

To see the new features and changes on Cairo Dock 3.0, please take a look at this demo video:





Install Cairo Dock 3.0 on Ubuntu
Ubuntu users can install the latest version of Cairo Dock by adding its PPA:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

For other Linux distributions, please refer to this documentation.

Regards :)

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Try the New Chromium OS with Aura Window Manager

Few days ago we coverd a story about the new changes in the Google Chrome OS, sadly not all of us can have the privilege to buy a brand new Chromebook nor we feel motivated to buy a new one just to check an Operating System.

Here is the open source build of Chromium OS by hexxeh, where you can have a feel of the new chromium OS and try it out installing it in a USB flash drive.


Here are two flavors of Chromium OS available for download from the hexxeh website. The vanilla builds are more closely aligned with upstream and are the most latest builds whereas the lime builds include broader hardware support and additional components, such as a Java plugin.

You can download the build of your choice by selecting the USB drive Icon in the download section, you can also download the Virtual Box images if you prefer to try it from your visualization application.The Download size of the image file is only 250MB.

To make your bootable USB drive on Linux follow the following Instructions.

Extract the IMG file from the downloaded archive, At the shell, run the dd command

• $ dd if=ChromeOS.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M

If your USB drive is connected to /dev/sdX (X = a or b or c etc,)

To find out your actual USB dev ID use the following commands

• $ ls /media

This will list out the devices connected to your computer like

cdrom  cdrom0  cdrom1  floppy  floppy0  ABCD

ABCD is your USB drive, now run the following command

• $ mount | grep ABCD

This will flash the actual USB dev ID as follows

/dev/sdc on /media/ABCD type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=500,gid=500,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,flush)

Which means sdc is the target device for the dd command, you can also confirm it from the dmesg command at the terminal.

Now boot from the newly created Chromium OS USB stick!

Voila!

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Linus Torvalds Wins Millennium Technology Prize

The Millennium Technology Prize is the largest technology prize in the world and it is awarded once every two years by Technology Academy Finland. The Awarded is given for life-enhancing technological innovation.

Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka won the Millennium Technology Prize, the prominent award for technological innovation for 2012.

Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds is best known for creation of a new open source operating system Linux kernel. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software. Linux is far more than just a server operating system. In fact, it's running in quite a few more places and powers devices such as smart mobile phones, home routers / switches, server, DVR, tablet device and much more. The Linux kernel has received contributions from thousands of programmers and companies around the world. According to David A. Wheeler's calculations it could cost approximately 3 billion USD (about 2.2 billion EUR) to redevelop the Linux kernel. He also created the revision control system Git.

From the press release:

In recognition of his creation of a new open source operating system for computers leading to the widely used Linux kernel. The free availability of Linux on the Web swiftly caused a chain-reaction leading to further development and fine-tuning worth the equivalent of 73,000 man-years. Today millions use computers, smartphones and digital video recorders like Tivo run on Linux. Linus Torvald’s achievements have had a great impact on shared software development, networking and the openness of the web, making it accessible for millions, if not billions.

Via: cyberciti.biz

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Enter the Ubuntu facebook Contest

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is almost ready for launch. Its time to welcome the unveiling with a chance to become a Ubuntu advocate and win some exciting prizes, just express your love for Ubuntu and post your recommendation for people to go for your favorite operating system, on this facebook contest page
 
There is no word limit for the recommendation of Ubuntu, you can even post your pictures, Poems, advertisements or even your anecdotes & experiances. 

Just submit your posts by 12pm (BST) on May 3^rd.

 Here is what you can win if you are the lucky one

1^st  $100 Ubuntu shop voucher & $50 Amazon voucher.
2^nd $100 Ubuntu shop voucher
3^rdUbuntu hoodie and Ubuntu travel mug.

You can enter as many times as you like. So whether you create it, find it, steal it or just say it, just speak up on the facebook Ubuntu contest page. And don’t forget to encourage your friends to Like your posts!

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Automatically Install Latest Nvidia Display Driver on Linux

Dear readers! Today I'd like to write a post on how to automatically install latest Nvidia display driver on Linux. When writing this post, the latest Nvidia driver is 295.40 with the following release highlight:

• Added support for the following GPUs:
• GeForce GT 635M
• GeForce 610M
• Closed a security vulnerability which made it possible for attackers to reconfigure GPUs to gain access to arbitrary system memory. For further details, see: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3109
• Fixed a bug that caused DisplayPort devices to occasionally fail to turn back on after the system is resumed from suspend.
• Added a ModeValidation X configuration option token, "AllowNon3DVisionModes", to allow modes that are not optimized for NVIDIA 3D Vision to be validated on 3D Vision monitors.

How to install this latest driver and get an update automatically when new version available? Simply, install "nvidia-current" package from repository:

• sudo apt-get install nivida-current

In case, you are using older Ubuntu version and there is no package named "nvidia-current", you have to add X-Updates Team PPA to your software sources:

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install nivida-current

Please note that installing proprietary driver might broke your system, so please use this driver at your own risk!

Regards :)

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Betelgeuse: Faience Like Icon theme for KDE

Betelgeuse is a new Faience like Icon theme for KDE, Betelgeuse is an Icon theme developed by acidrums4 on deviant art. The project is claimed to be started with the aim to create a complete, modern, clean and eye-candy icon theme for the KDE Desktop Environment.

The Project is still under development and does not contain full set of icons, but the Icon theme seems promising and is an ultimate eyecandy for your KDE desktop.

Installation

You can either download the icon set in zip file from here and extract it under ~/.kde4/share/icons/, or clone the git repo.

To install the icons through git you need to have git installed on your Ubuntu machine, to install git you can use the following command

• $ sudo apt-get install git

Now you can install the icons using git as follows,

• $ git clone git://gitorious.org/betelgeuse/betelgeuse-sources.git

• $ cd betelgeuse-sources

• $ sh ./build.sh

The Icon theme is licensed under Creative Commons with Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

Enjoy!

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EasyStroke: Control Your Computer With Mouse Gesture

EasyStroke is an application which can recognize gesture made by pointing devices such as mouse, pen, finger, etc. Gestures or strokes handled by EasyStroke are movements of pointing devices while holding down a specific mouse button. EasyStroke will execute certain actions configured by users if it recognizes the stroke, EasyStroke can emulate key presses, execute shell command, hold down modifiers, etc. There is an interested feature of EasyStroke that is "application-dependent gesture" ability which only take an action depending on recently active application.

Please note that EasyStroke is an old application and might be not fully supported by latest Ubuntu version. Fortunately, I have tested it on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot (XFCE) and everything works well.

Install EasyStroke on Ubuntu
EasyStroke is available on Ubuntu repository, so simply type the following command to install it:

• sudo apt-get install easystroke

If you prefer adding a PPA repository, type this command instead:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:easystroke/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install easystroke

Once installed, EasyStroke can be accessed via "Accessories" category on menu. When you run the application, you will have an icon on notification area.

Advise for Unity users
EasyStroke have not used indicator applet yet, so when you run it from menu, you have nothing on Indicator Applet. To solve this problem, simply run EasyStroke from Terminal:

• easystroke -g

It will run EasyStroke and open configuration windows automatically.

For EasyStroke configuration, please refer to the official documentation.

Have not interested yet? Watch this video to see what EasyStroke can do :)




Enjoy :)

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Nokuntu: Nokia Phone Manager for Ubuntu

Nokuntu is an application  for managing Nokia phones on Ubuntu. It is similar to Windows Nokia PC Suite,  It has a simple and easy to use user interface that combines many functions like managing media files, synchronization, sending SMS, sending files via Nautilus, share your PC Internet connection via Bluetooth on your phone, check battery status of your phone, auto detection of USB/Bluetooth connections, etc.

Here are some of the main features about Nokuntu explained in detail

• Connect the phone via USB and use Nautilus file manager to brows the memory cards installed and copy/move/delete files.
• If you want to access the phone's chip, then you'll have to install another graphic frond-end which is built for communicating using the "OBEX" protocol.
• You can import your back-up contacts in the Phone and use them under Evolution e-mail client.
• Receive/Send files via Bluetooth.
• Connect to Internet using the built in modem.
• Displays battery charging level.
• Backup your SMS messages
• Install Java applications.
• Compose and send messages.
• Add off-line maps.
• Use the mobile phone's camera for capturing and storing videos directly to the PC/Laptop.

Installing Nokuntu

As explained above for the best usage of Nokuntu make sure to install the OBEX protocol frond-end called obextool. You can install the obextool in Ubuntu by entering the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal window.

• $ sudo apt-get install obextool

To install Nokuntu via PPA add the following PPA to your distribution

• $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/mobile

Update your apt repositories

• $ sudo apt-get update

Now you are ready to install Nokuntu on your Ubuntu machine.

• sudo apt-get install nokuntusp

Please note that Nokuntu project is currently not under development and may not support newer Nokia Devices.

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Desura: Great Indie Game Store for Windows and Linux

Desura is a great application (and service) especially for those who likes indie games. It's available on Windows and Linux. By using Desura, you can browse, search, buy (there are many free games though), and install games on your computer. It also helps you to manage, update, and even install new mods easily. Just install and play!

Install Desura on Ubuntu
Installing Desura on Ubuntu/Linux is a piece of cake. Simply, download the installer here, extract the archive, and run the Desura file. The installer will start download necessary files from its server. Once completed, you can login or create new account for Desura.

Once logged in, you will be able to browse, search, and install many available games. At every page of game, you can watch the trailer video, view the rating, read review and comments of other users. If you are interested in giving the game a try, just click "Install game" to install (or buy) the game.

Enjoy :)

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Codecademy: Learn Programming Online

Did you ever tried learning Programming and become a geek, but didn’t know how and where to start with ? Don’t have the patience to read bulky and dry computer books?  Then  Codecademy is the answer you are looking for
.
It’s an interactive site you start off simply with some naming conventions and math equations inside an interactive "terminal" window. It saves your progress if you make an account, and you gain Foursquare style "badges" for completing lessons that you can share on your favorite social media site.

The depth of the lessons seems pretty good, and the site also have a feature to become  a teacher once you log in, so if you want to contribute to the learning experience and add more lessons, you can start contributing right away.

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Tutorial: How to create a Unity lens for Ubuntu

Have you ever tried your hands for developing a lens for Unity ? Here is a nice tutorial from canonical on how you can start writing your own custom lenses for Ubuntu 12.04.

Lenses are a central part of the Unity desktop, and anybody who’s used it will be familiar with the default Application and File lenses, maybe even the Music lens.

But there’s so much more to this technology than you might think.


The Unity Dash provides a lightweight, instant and easy means to browse and retrieve interesting content. Through the use of lenses, it enables the user to search for information both locally and remotely.

In this tutorial  you’ll learn how to easily write a lens to comfortably search the Wikipedia right from your desktop. And will demonstrate how you can easily create lens for the Unity dash to enrich the Ubuntu user experience and provide the ability to search on the wikipedia right from the desktop.

For additional information you can also refer to the Unity lenses documentation.

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Linux for Kids

Linux has been a versatile operating system catering the needs of people from all walks of life. Unlike Windows and Mac, which only target the general consumers, Linux offer various specialized distributions for engineers, doctors, religious people, and even kids. Yes, kids. Linux, thanks to its openness, has allowed many developers to create distributions made especially for kids of different age groups.

These distributions aren’t made to teach C++ programming for kids. Instead, they are normal, easy to use distros with user interfaces specially designed for the young ones.

Many of them come with games and educational software preinstalled, so that children can learn as well as have fun.

Here are some of the most impressive Linux distributions your kids and those who are young at heart would love to use

Qimo for Kids is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with a desktop environment designed specifically for children. The distribution comes preinstalled with educational games suitable for children 3 years and older. The distribution comes with an intuitive and very easy interface with large icons so that even the youngest children will not have any difficulty playing with it.

Sugar is the distribution based on Fedora Linux that was designed for Intel's One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) project. It is aimed at K-6 children and is a radical departure from the traditional desktop, putting more fun, ease, teaching and programming abilities into the computing desktop.It is especially designed for classroom use and it is so radically different from the traditional Linux desktop that you can begin to feel you are using a completely different operating system.

Edubuntu is based on the popular Ubuntu distribution. Designed to be easy to install and very Windows-like in its operation, The distribution has three different themes, called “young”, “plain” and “default”, for young users, a plain-desktop and a general-purpose installation. The default desktop environment is Gnome and the applications that come with the installation are OpenOffice.org, KDE Edutainment Suite and Gcompris. KDE Edutainment Suite includes applications for children between ages 3 and 18 and Gcompris includes applications for children in nursery/kindergarten.

Foresight for Kids is a derivative of Foresight Linux, aimed specifically at children between 3 and 12 years old. It has Gnome as the default desktop environment and includes Tuxpaint, Tuxtyping, Gcompris, Tux of Math Command, Super Tux, Super Tux Card, Foobillard, GNU Chess, Nibbles, Frozen Bubble, Super Maryo Chronicles, F-Spot Photo Manager, Firefox Web Browser, Banshee Media Player, Pidgin Instant Messenger and Totem Movie Player, among the applications installed. The children’s attention is attracted to the bumblebee character smiling and waving from the lower end corner of the desktop, warming them to the computer immediately.

Doudou Linux is based on Debian and thus it's quite stable (and also means that if you know your way around Linux, you can install programs from the Debian repository). The desktop environment is reworked completely to make it as easy as possible for children. Doudou includes Child's Play and GCompris, two popular collections of Linux games for Kids. In addition, Doudou Linux offers adventure, arcade, board, card, logic and sports games to enjoy, Geography, Kanagram, Hangman KLetters for learning, Instant Messaging (Empathy) and Web Browser (Epiphany) for surfing. These programs are grouped under "Learn", "Work" and "Enjoy" sections and arranged in a neat, tabbed interface. 

 
Get ready to prepare your kids to become the geeks of tomorrow :)

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Trick: Currency Converter on Command Line

Hello, today I'd like to show you a simple trick to have simple currency converter on Linux command line. I hope this post is useful for you especially for those who often works with international sales or trading. Here is a working example.

It uses Google Finance service to work, please make sure you are connected to the Internet when using it. Now, please open ".bashrc" file using your favorite text editor. If you use Gedit, simply type the following command to open it:

• gedit ~/.bashrc

Create new line at the end of the file, and put this code:

• currency_convert() {
• curl -s "http://www.google.com/finance/converter?a=$1&from=$2&to=$3" | sed '/res/!d;s/<[^>]*>//g';
• }

After editing, ".bashrc" file should looks like this:

Save the changes and close the text editor. Now, open Terminal and type the following command to apply the changes you've made:

• source ~/.bashrc

Done! Now, you can use simple currency converter by typing:

• currency_convert 1 usd eur

The above command convert 1 US Dollar into Euro. Please change the code to suit your needs.

Enjoy :)

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Ubuntu Cloud Live: Private Clouds via USB Drive

The cloud is very hard to be visualized, because of the hardware behind it is, which is often an ambiguous collection of servers scattered somewhere across the ether of the Internet. But in Canonical’s vision, the cloud can be something as simple and concrete as a USB stick running the Ubuntu Cloud Live image, which makes the creation of private clouds quite trivial.

Based in its most recent iteration on Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu Cloud Live — as its name implies — is a live session of Ubuntu preloaded with all the tools needed to create and manage a complete private cloud environment.

It’s available as an image file that can be run on any computer from a USB stick, it can be installed to make bootable USB stick using the image or fired up quickly and easily in a virtual machine.

The image uses OpenStack Diablo, requires an x86_64 compatible desktop/laptop machine, and is approximately 560Mb in size. We recommend flashing to a 4GB USB drive (or larger) to allow for proper setup and use of the cloud.

Installing Ubuntu Cloud Live on USB Stick

To install Ubuntu Cloud Live on a USB stick you can either use unetbootin tool or use dd command to install manually, here is how you can use the dd command for USB install.

If your USB drive is connected to /dev/sdb, make sure the drive isn’t mounted, and then run.

• $ dd if=ubuntu-11.10-cloud-live-amd64.img of=/dev/sdb

WARNING: THIS COMMAND WILL ERASE ALL DATA PREVIOUSLY STORED ON THE TARGET DEVICE. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT DEVICE WHEN FLASHING.

Once flashed, simply boot your laptop/desktop from the USB drive and follow the instructions displayed on the desktop.

With Ubuntu Cloud Live, you can literally hold the cloud in one’s palm and control it in a very hands-on way. :)

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TermSaver: Terminal Based Screensaver

TermSaver is a  cool screensaver that can run from the command-line interface or terminal in Ubuntu/Linux. TermSaver isn’t supposed replace other screensavers that come with your desktop such as GnomeShell, Unity, KDE, or other Desktop Environment.

And it also might not be able to carry out the actual purpose of a screesaver since it lacks a lot of pixel movements (screen animations), which otherwise helps to prevent “screen burns” on display devices.

But if you are using command-line as your primary interface or, if you’re a desktop user who usually uses the Terminal emulator and looking for a screensaver that’s quite fun to use, then you might wanna try “TermSaver”.

Installing TermSaver in Ubuntu

Install pip a tool for installing and managing Python packages

• $  sudo apt-get install python-pip python-dev build-essential

Now you are ready to install TermSaver on your machine, issue the following command at the terminal.

• $ sudo pip install termsaver

Using TermSaver

Issue the following command in the terminal,

• $ termsaver --help
  

This will list out the arguments to be used with termsaver command to display the text based screensavers.

Usage: termsaver [screen] [options]

Screens:

 clock                     displays a digital clock on screen
 randtxt                displays word in random places on screen
 dot                        displays a random running dot
 asciiartfarts       displays ascii images from asciiartfarts.com (NSFW)
 rfc                         randomly displays RFC contents
 quotes4all          displays recent quotes from quotes4all.net
 programmer     displays source code in typing animation
 urlfetcher          displays url contents with typing animation
 jokes4all             displays recent jokes from jokes4all.net (NSFW)
 rssfeed                displays rss feed information

For example if I use the asciiartfarts as the screen for termsaver

• $ termsaver asciiartfarts

this will show the random ascii art from asciiartfarts.com unless I terminate it using Ctrl + C

 Enjoy!

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