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Showing posts from December, 2011

Native Look and Feel for Netbeans on Xfce

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Netbeans displays a different look and feel than the rest of the applications on Xfce. To fix this, just add --laf GTK to the command that runs Netbeans (the command might different on your configuration), like so: /bin/netbeans --laf GTK

Install Sun Java 6 SDK on Xubuntu 11.10

Since 11.10 (X)Ubuntu does not provide the sun-java-jdk package, to install it open a terminal window and type: sudo apt-get install python-software-properties sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/java sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-plugin References: http://superuser.com/questions/353983/how-do-i-install-the-sun-java-sdk-in-ubuntu-11-10-oneric

Install Clementine Music Player (Amarok 1.4 fork) in Xubuntu 11.10

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Amarok 1.4 was the primary reason for me to be using Kubuntu a few years ago. Simply put, it was awesome: it was simple to use and advanced features were included. When KDE4 was released in 2008, Amarok went to version 2. It suffered so many changes that I felt that it lost its essence. Clementine Music Player is a fork of Amarok's version 1.4 to port it to Qt 4. Despite the fact that it is a Qt application and Xfce has GTK as its framework, I was so excited to have the good old Amarok back that I gave it a try. It met all my expectations and it works very well on my Xubuntu 11.10 environment; the keyboard multimedia keys work out-of-the-box (may I remind you that gmusicbrowser, the default music player on Xubuntu 11.10, doesn't support multimedia keys). Clementines desktop integration is very good To install Clementine on Xubuntu just type on a terminal window: sudo apt-get install clementine or Click to install Clementine References: http://www.techdr

Fix look of KDE/Qt applications in Xfce/Xubuntu

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On a fresh install of Xubuntu 11.10, Qt (KDE) applications don't use the same style as the other applications. VLC using the wrong style VLC using the desktop style (greybird) To fix this just install libgnome2-0 , via terminal: sudo apt-get install libgnome2-0 Or Click here to install libgnome2-0

Add application to Xfce/Xubuntu session startup [Xubuntu >= 11.10]

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When a user logs in, the desktop environment starts do load the necessary resources to provide its functionality. Some of this process is configurable by the user. For instance, the user can choose which applications will be run when the session is loaded. fig.1 List of applications that will be started when the user logs in Add Application to startup Open ' Settings Manager ' Select 'Session and Startup' On the 'Application Autostart' click on the 'Add' button On the dialog that opens (fig.2) write the name of the application and the command that runs the application (description isn't mandatory). Once you click 'OK' the application will be added to the list and will automatically be started on the next session login. fig.2 Dialog for entering the information of the startup application Related posts: Edit Xfce Settings with graphical interface

Fix keyring for accessing Samba shares

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If the Samba share that you are accessing is password protected, you'll be prompted to provide the login credentials for that share. It'll be given the choice for remembering the login information, so that it won't have to be entered every time the share is accessed. However, for some reason every time the share was accessed share with nautilus, the login credentials were being asked persistently. The way that I found to fix this was to remove the current keyring configuration: $ rm ~/.gnome2/keyring After that keyring behaved like it normally does: it prompts once for the credentials and stores them for later use if the 'Remember forever' option is selected.

Suspend on close laptop lid [Xubuntu 11.10]

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When using a laptop, the ability to suspend is a important feature because it allows to save some battery when idle and resume operation almost instantly. To suspend when laptop lid is closed proceed as follows: Open ' Settings Manager ' Select 'On AC' Select 'Suspend' from the combo-box. Related: Edit Xfce Settings with graphical interface

No tabs for Thunar

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Update: Since version 1.5.1 Thunar supports multiple tabs. Here's how to install it. If you're wondering when will Thunar support tabs, well the answer is never (see the reference bellow ). If you really want/need a file manager with tabs support for your Xubuntu, you could easily install nautilus: $ sudo apt-get install nautilus Nautilus will add tabs support for Xfce/Xubuntu References: When will thunar support tabs? (Xfce Forum)

Mouse gestures on Thunar

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Mouse gestures is a way sending application commands with a pointing device (usually a mouse). This means that if some application has support for mouse gestures, you'll be able to perform some actions just by moving you mouse. Mouse gestures are a common feature in Web Browsers. Opera has built-in support since version 5.10 (April 2001). For Firefox and Chrome support is added through extensions ( FireGestures  for Firefox and  Smooth gestures  for Chrome). There are also some projects that add support for Linux desktop ( easystroke ) and for Windows ( Just Gestures  and  Strokeit ) Thunar also has support for mouse gestures (though very limited one). To use them press mouse middle button and the move your mouse in one of this directions: Left - opens the previous visited folder Up - opens the parent folder Right - opens the next visited folder Down - reload the current folder mouse middle button and left will open the previous visited folder References:

Add support for Samba shares to Thunar [Xubuntu 11.10]

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Thunar is a simple and easy to use file manager and is the default choice for Xfce. Despite the fact the it incorporates all the main features that one would expect from a modern file manager, Thunar doesn't provide a out of the box solution for accessing remote folders (namely Samba shares). Running the command below will add support for remote folders: $ sudo apt-get install gvfs-backends

Add items to Xfce Applications Menu

To add an application launcher to Xfce Applications Menu is simple; all you have to do is place the *.desktop file that launches the application in the right folder. Create the *.desktop file Create a text file whose extension is 'desktop', with the following content: [Desktop Entry] Version=1.0 Type=Application Name= ItemName Exec= Command Icon= IconFile Categories= Category ; On ItemName write the name that should be displayed on the menu. Command  is the command that should be run. IconFile is the path to some *.png file. The Category dictates the sub-menu where the item will be placed. See the table bellow to see what Category value you should use. Sub-Menu Categories Accessories Utility Development Development Games Game Graphics Graphics Internet Network Multimedia AudioVideo Office Office System System A new item can be placed on a sub-menu by selecting the right 'Catego

Pastie on Xubuntu 11.10

Pastie is a simple clipboard manager that saves history of previous copied text. It's convenient to use a clipboard manager not only for the history list, but also because the copied text will be unavailable if the application that has the original text is closed. Install Pastie via PPA sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hel-sheep/pastie && sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install python-gnome2 pastie -y Note:  Pastie depends on python-gnome2 package, however this dependency it's not automatically resolved; python-gnome2 has to be installed manually. Here's what happens if python-gnome2 is not installed: $ pastie Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/usr/bin/pastie", line 30, in <module>     import pastielib.protector as protector   File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/pastielib/protector.py", line 31, in <module>     import pastielib.history as history   File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/pastielib/history.py"