A Xubuntu user experience journal
VLC has received an important update. Here's the main changes of version 2.0.6 'Twoflower':
Open a terminal window and run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
In this article we'll get authentication via fingerprint working in Xubuntu.
Open a terminal window and run:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:fingerprint/fingerprint-gui -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libbsapi policykit-1-fingerprint-gui fingerprint-gui -y
Fingerprint GUI can be accessed typing the following command: fingerprint-gui.
On the main interface select the Finger tab, choose a finger to scan and click Next; this step selects the Scan/Verify tab. Now swipe your finger on your reader. When the scan finishes you'll be asked if you wish to scan another finger.
Once you finish the finger scanning, restart the session by logging out. You'll be able to use your fingerprint to log back in.
Besides logging in, you'll be able to use your fingerprint in other authentications: sudo, su, gksu.
Open a terminal window and run:
sudo apt-get remove libbsapi policykit-1-fingerprint-gui fingerprint-gui -y && sudo apt-get install policykit-1-gnome -y
Xubuntu 13.04 Beta 2 has been released.
Xubuntu 13.04 is mostly a maintenance release, and there won’t be too many new features. In Beta 2, we’ve fixed the following bugs:In addition, new features and bug fixes introduced in Beta 1 and earlier include:
- Documentation is updated to 13.04
- New version of Catfish (0.6.1) is included and fixes a lot of bugs
- More updates for the Greybird theme
- Gnumeric and GIMP are reintroduced
- New version of Parole (0.5.0) is included
- Duplicate partitions are no longer shown on desktop or Thunar
- Some updates for the Greybird theme
Beta 2 is not suitable for production machines because is still unstable and is available here.
A application launcher is a little icon on Xfce's panel that launches an application when it's clicked. Lets see one way to add a launcher to the panel.
It has been brought to my attention, by one of the readers, that the Abiword 2.9 which is pre-installed in Xubuntu 12.04/12.10 has some problems. The last stable version is 2.8.6 and people were happier with it, so I wrote a simple script to downgrade the installed version to 2.8.6.
The script removes the current installed version, downloads and installs the deb files for version 2.8.6 and locks this version so it won't get upgraded automatically when the system is upgraded. The code on the "Downgrade" section of this post, downloads and executes this script. It'll ask for your password because it needs administrator privileges for installing the packages.
Open a terminal window and run:
cd && wget -O downgrade_abiword.sh http://goo.gl/cZM6N && chmod +x downgrade_abiword.sh && ./downgrade_abiword.sh && rm downgrade_abiword.sh
The size of the ISO file for the next Xubuntu release (13.04 Raring Ringtail) will no longer fit a CD. The size is being increased to 1GB and the ISO will include once again GIMP and Gnumeric.
This article will show how to open a directory in Xfce4 Terminal's drop-down console, directly from Thunar's context menu.
You can either create a new custom action or edit the existing "Open Terminal Here" action, adding the following as the command:
xfce4-terminal --tab --drop-down --working-directory %f
To learn more about adding Thunar's custom actions, read this.
The default icon theme for Xubuntu is "elementary Xfce". There's a theme for JDownloader that matches the icon theme, giving the application a more native look. Let's see how to install it.
$HOME/.jdownloader).This article shows how to install the latest version of the productivity suite, LibreOffice. When I say "latest" I'm referring to alphas and betas, so I'll quote the "LibreOffice Packaging" team:
Only for the most brave and courageous!
If you're running Xubuntu 12.04, LibreOffice 3.6 RC will be installed. And LibreOffice 4.0 alpha will be installed for the Xubuntu 12.10 users.
Open a terminal window and run:
sudo apt-get purge libreoffice-core -y && sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libreoffice -y
LibreOffice can be accessed via Applications Menu > Office > LibreOffice.
To find out the repository address for a package we use the policy argument of the apt-get tool.
Open a terminal window and run:
apt-cache policy PACKAGE_NAME
The repository link is presented on the line second to last:
apt-cache policy diodon
diodon:
Installed: 1.0.2-0ubuntu0~quantal1
Candidate: 1.0.2-0ubuntu0~quantal1
Version table:
*** 1.0.2-0ubuntu0~quantal1 0
500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/diodon-team/stable/ubuntu/ quantal/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
Since version 0.6, Xfce4 Terminal provides a option to use it as a drop-down console, just like Guake and Tilda.
Xfce4 Terminal 0.6.x is installed when Xfce is upgraded to 4.12. So if you're running Xubuntu 12.10, all you need is add the Xfce 4.12 PPA. Xubuntu 12.04 users have to add Xfce 4.10 first and only then add the Xfce 4.12 PPA. But do not worry, installation is as simple as navigating to this page and coping and pasting the command written on the Install section on a terminal window. The command will add Xfce 4.10 PPA if you're running Xubuntu 12.04 and will upgrade Xfce and its related programs (Xfce4 Terminal, Thunar, etc).
Xfce4 Terminal drop-down feature is available as a command line option: xfce4-terminal --drop-down.
You can assign a keyboard shortcut for summoning the terminal (Settings Manager > Keyboard > Application Keyboard Shortcuts). The command bellow will add F4 as the key to summon the terminal; you can edit it to use any other key.
xfconf-query -c xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts -p /commands/custom/F4 -n -t string -s "xfce4-terminal --drop-down"
Once running, the terminal can also be summoned using the icon on the panel. Right-clicking this icon gives access the drop-down preferences where settings can be adjusted:
Updated: 10 June 2015
I-Nex is a hardware information gatherer with graphical interface. It displays detailed hardware information and some software information about the Operating System, Kernel and packages.
I-Nex is quick gathering the information. The interface is well organized and easy to understand. I-Nex also provides the possibility of generating a detailed report and create a screenshot directly from the application.
I-Nex requires a up-to-date Gambas 3 (used for the graphical interface), so we need to add the Gambas 3 PPA. To install them both, open a terminal window and run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gambas-team/gambas3 -y && sudo add-apt-repository ppa:i-nex-development-team/stable -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install i-nex -y
I-Nex can be accessed via Applications Menu > System > I-Nex or typing the following command: i-nex.
If you wish to remove I-Next, open a terminal window and run:
sudo apt-get remove i-nex -y && sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:gambas-team/gambas3 -y && sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:i-nex-development-team/stable -y && sudo apt-get autoremove -y && sudo apt-get update
Reading this ticket I was made into believing that this was due to a GTK bug. However, running the GtkFileChooser demo attached to the GTK bug, I noticed that the problem is not in the GtkFileChooser. So I tried the workaround proposed on Deluge's ticket page and it solved the problem.
Open a terminal window and run:
cd && wget http://goo.gl/XEQRb -O fix.sh && chmod +x fix.sh && ./fix.sh && rm fix.sh
Updated: 08/09/13
There's no sound coming out of the speakers after pausing and resuming in VLC.
There are two alternative ways of solving this problem.
Open a terminal window and run:
sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-pulse -y
When running a application from the terminal the following warning is displayed:
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 9: reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.
Open a terminal window and run:
mkdir -p $HOME/.config/fontconfig
mv $HOME/.fonts.conf $HOME/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf
Fifefox 19 Beta has been released and now PDF files can be viewed in the web-browser using a native viewer written in Javascript. Actually, this is a experimental feature that has been available and could be toggled on, but it's enabled by default in Firefox 19.
Open a terminal window and run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next -y && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox
To be able to open/extract 7-Zip files (7z extension) in Xubuntu we need the p7zip-full package. Check bellow for instructions on how to install it.
Open a terminal window and run:
sudo apt-get install p7zip-full -y
This article shows how to disable a Wacom tablet without unplugging it physically. This could also be applied to other input devices, but in my experience I only use it on Wacom tablets.
Why am I interested in disabling the device? Well, some programs have problems dealing with multiple devices, and the "tablet inside" a Tablet PC cannot be easily unplugged, making it harder to use a external tablet.
Open a terminal window and run:
xinput set-prop DEVICE_NAME 'Device Enabled' 0
The DEVICE_NAME can be determined using the command xsetwacom list devices. If DEVICE_NAME has spaces you should surround it with quotation marks (either single or double), like so:
xinput set-prop 'Wacom ISDv4 E6 Finger touch' 'Device Enabled' 0
The device could be easily enabled again replace zero (0) at the end of the command with a one (1).
There are two settings related to Xfce font rendering that make fonts look better: Anti-aliasing and LCD Hinting.
From my experience with Xubuntu these two settings are set to its optimal value, so I never had any complains about the font appearance. But if you think your fonts could look better, proceed as described below.
(click on the images to see the differences)
Anti-aliasing disabled and LCD Hinting set to lcdnone
Anti-aliasing enabled and LCD Hinting set to lcdnone
Anti-aliasing enabled and LCD Hinting set to lcddefault
Open a terminal window and run:
xrdb -query
If your Xft.antialias is set to "0" or Xft.lcdfilter is not "ldcdefault", run:
# Enable anti-aliasing
xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Xft/Antialias -n -t int -s 1
# Set LCDHinting to lcddefault
xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Xft/Lcdfilter -n -t string -s lcddefault
You should logout and in for settings take full effect.
Note:Other possible values for Lcdfilter are lcdnone, lcddefault, lcdlight and lcdlegacy.
Thunar's "send to" menu option can be easily extended using desktop entry files. All we need is to create a new desktop file in ~/.local/share/Thunar/sendto/ for each destination. The desktop file has a MimeType field which allows you to control on which file types the "send to" option will appear. If you omit the MimeType the option will appear for all types.
The example bellow is a option to send my sketches to Picasa. It appears only for PNG images and uses a shell script that I wrote and is in $PATH. You can use it as a boilerplate for your own.
# sketchupload.desktop - Send to Picasa
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Version=1.0
Encoding=UTF-8
TryExec=sketchupload.sh
Exec=sketchupload.sh %F
Icon=picasa-16
Name=Send to Picasa
MimeType=image/png;