How To Edit Compiz Settings in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Easily?

OK, first of all, I think everyone is aware of the fact that Ubuntu Linux (especially the Unity desktop) heavily depends on Compiz (one of the best window-manager that uses your GPU - ATI/Nvidia and Intel, etc.. 3D hardware accelerations or 3D Graphics rendering in general). So configuring Compiz in Ubuntu Linux can be pretty handy, only if you know what you're doing, no disrespect intended.

Although you can easily do this by installing a well known front-end but still, even without having to install anything at all, you can change a lot of Compiz related settings in Ubuntu 11.04 using the Gnome configuration manager called "Gconfig-editor".

And I think it's always best to start with the somewhat the "hard-way", which always helps me, when it comes to quickly learning GNU/Linux and its other aspects. Don't you think? :). Okay, let's get started. 

1. Open your Terminal and issue the below command.

gconf-editor

2. This should bring you the Gnome Configuration editor as shown below. From the left side choose:"apps" -> "compiz-1".

Now under "compiz-1", go to "plugins". There you'll see a hell lot of options :P that can be used to configure compiz pretty easily. But as I said before, even the most smallest change can have a significant effect on Ubuntu 11.04 because Unity desktop is actually a plug-in that runs on top of Compiz 3D rendering engine!.

Oh you can change a lot... but be careful!...

So, if you successfully messed up Compiz then you can actually reset all those value to the default ones by issuing the below commands in your Terminal.

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz-1
unity --reset 

It's advisable to log out of your desktop and to log in or do a reboot. Still this is not a guarantee that this command will fix everything..., so change Compiz at your own risk or try to remember the changes (which is not that easy anyway).

Don't try to change settings like the "refresh rate" values in those options, for instance, if you don't know what you're doing, because it can easily "burn" your GNU/Linux Laptop or PC's monitor!.

And if you change Compiz settings related to Unity only via: "apps" -> "compizconfig-1" -> "profiles" -> "unity",

Then use the below command in your Linux Terminal to reset all the values to default ones.

unity --reset

And remember although there can be small risks involved, yet when it comes learning to use GNU/Linux, we all have to do a little bit of testing :D. Good luck.

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Gnome3/Shell Will Be Officially Available via Ubuntu Repository, Starting with Ubuntu 11.10

It was first said that Gnome3 or the Shell will only be available in PPA channels in the future for Ubuntu users. So no official repositories will be set-up. But for some reason, perhaps for the growing demand or something else, Canonical will officially support Gnome3 starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 version!.

What does it mean ??

Even without the help of Canonical, we could've still install Gnome3 in Ubuntu in the future, but since it's the original Ubuntu developers who knows everything about Ubuntu itself thus them involving in an official repository simply means better compatibility. May not be always true but most of the time, it's true.

For instance, I'm not quite sure how it's now (I don't use Gnome 3 in Ubuntu), but at first it was said not to install Gnome Shell with Unity since they both can easily clash (really, nooooooo :P) thus making a system failure or breaking the Unity desktop in other words. But with the help of the original developers... in the future both Gnome3 and Unity will work hand in hand, finally. 

So what happens to "libappindicator"??

Well, according to Akhtar's post in OMGUbuntu, a detecting mechanism will be developed between the two rivals, Ubuntu's appindicator -> Gnome3 appindicator system, thus in the future, thus if Gnome3 is detected ,the Ubuntu OS will take proper action to works seamlessly.

This is a good move actually. Because if we really want to beat Microsoft ... then having a clash between Canonical and Gnome is the last thing that we want. Still this does not mean that now Canonical and Gnome agree with each other... but it's a start, isn't it??.

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Clonezilla, The Best HDD Cloning Utility That Comes With the GNU/GPL License

To be honest Norton Ghost is actually a pretty powerful hard-disk cloning tool. Not the only one, but I use it sometimes to restore my Windows OS partition (dual boot with GNU/Linux). It does almost everything. Split your image via several CDs/DVDs or compress it so the image would take less space, etc but that's not to say that it has its limitations.

The biggest drawback of Norton Ghost is that the time it takes to make or create backups of more than one computer (network or server backups usually). If that's so, and you're looking for an easy to use, OS Independent, open-source application that has the ability to restore 41 simultaneous backups within 10 minutes (5.6 GBytes), then Clonezilla is the one to call for!.

Won't win any "look-n-feel" contest... but it's quite powerful nonetheless!

It comes in two versions. 

1. Clonezilla live - Which is aimed at home computer users which allows you to boot into the utility itself via CD/DVD or using a USB drive.

2. Clonezilla SE - SE stands for server edition. This is for network system administrators who wants to to massive system image restoration, etc.

It supports a lot of GNU/Linux file systems + Microsoft Windows file systems, etc such as ...

*. ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs of GNU/Linux, (2) FAT, NTFS of MS Windows, (3) HFS+ of Mac OS, (4) UFS of FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, and (5) VMFS of VMWare ESX.

So if you have a network that consists of multiple operating systems... no problem.. Clonezilla can handle that pretty easily.


Here are the system requirements (minimum). 

*. X86 (32-bit) or x86-64 (64-bit) processor/s.

*. 196MB of RAM.

*. Boot device supported - CD/DVD Drive, USB port, PXE, or hard drive.

You can download it from here.

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Install Cmus in Ubuntu, A Fully Featured Music Player (runs in Console)

Although GNU/Linux won't make it any easier to let you play easily proprietary codecs or anything "proprietary" in general (Ubuntu does make it easier actually). But when set-up properly... boy... these days there are countless applications that can even give you a bit of a headache because of the huge set of choices that are presented!.

A bit of a hacker attitude ;-)

So in that sense, you actually don't need to install Cmus music player. Because it runs in the Console thus have a bit of an ugly looking interface. But for all those who would like to have a music player that looks pretty cool in a way (you know... running in command line... kinda give you the notion of you being a bit of a hacker at all that, like in movies) too.

But make no mistakes boys and gals... it is certainly one of the most powerful ones out there too. For instance, there is actually no audio codec that the Cmus cannot play, it seems.

*. Ogg Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, Musepack, WavPack, WAV, AAC, MP4, and everything supported by ffmpeg (WMA, APE, MKA, TTA, SHN, …) project.

*. Gain audio (you know, a software amplifier).

*. Playlist support and live filtering.

*. Can keep the last played position of a file/s.

*. Director browser.

*. Change colors.

*. Very stable and loads faster than light :P... seriously it is fast.

If you have installed Ubuntu 10.04/10.10 or the 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then you can install Cmus (version 2.3.0) player by issuing the below command in Terminal.

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jmuc/cmus

    sudo apt-get update

    sudo apt-get install cmus

Enjoy!.

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Get Your Free Google Video Chat Facility for Your Android Phone (Starting with Nexus S)

Having installed Skype or any VOIP application is a must these days when it comes to mobile phones. Although you can easily set up the video chatting in your Android phone with the help of Skype for instance. But in recent post by Google mobile team announced that, now you can make free unlimited video calls in your Android phone freely thanks to Google talk!.

Oh it's getting better and better!

This is certainly not limited within Android device to another Android device actually, even if the user at the other-and uses a Google talk account via their personal computer (no matter what the installed OS is)... as long as the conversion is between Google talk to Google talk, you'll be able to video chat!.

This is actually interesting that Skype has been dominating the VOIP market from the start. But it could change in the future if Google comes up with things like this once in a while. Anyhow, you'll be able to start your Google Video chat via the Android phone, a button will appear next to the people in your Google Talk friends list, simply click on that button and you're on!.

This feature will be available first with the Nexus S + within the next upcoming weeks, when the Android 2.3.4 version hits the downloads it'll be embedded into it. Also for Android 2.3 version this will be available in the near future as well.

Below is the introduction video from one of the members from Google's mobile team. More information concerning this feature is available from the Google mobile web site.

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How to Install 7zip Archive Manager in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

If you haven't heard about 7zip archive manager, then it is one of the most powerful, feature rich, free utilities that can be used to create/change both free and few proprietary archive formats not just in GNU/Linux but in Microsoft Windows as well.

Of course Ubuntu does come with an archive manager of its own (the one that comes with Gnome actually) but when comparing with 7zip... I gotta say.. that archive utility looks stupid. By default 7zip supports file formats such as...

*. 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, WIM, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR, Z... copied from its official page.

*. Add passwords.

*. Change compression levels.

*. Save in various formats.

*. Split-merge archives.

*. Encryption manager.

*. Has a file manager of its own!.

*. Create self extracting archives. 

*. Lot of language support.. are very few to mention.

If you want to install 7zip in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then the easiest method is to use the "Software Center". To do that, open the Software Center and enter the "7zip" into search box and follow instructions on the screen. Good luck.

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How To Change Keyboard Layout in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Easily!

If you're a touch typist, then most probably you would be using the dominant/popular QWERTY keyboard layout or the less popular but efficient + comfortable (in my experience anyway) Dvorak layout.

If you use Dvorak as your main typing interface and installed GNU/Linux recently then you'd most probably want to know how to change not just from QWERTY -> Dvorak but to switch between different types of keyboard layouts in Gnome.

For this example I'm using the Ubuntu 11.04 (seriously if you have lower end PC, especially a VGA card with low 3D support, while comparing with standard of these days then the Unity desktop will be a bit troublesome). I'm going to switch from QWERY to Dvorak in this example but using this method you should be able to switch between any layout no matter what GNU/Linux keyboards that you use as long as the operating system supports it.

First access the "System Settings" from the drop down menu from the upper right corner of your Panel. 

From the window you get choose "Hardware" from the left side and then choose "Keyboard" from the right-side menu (screenshot -1).

Screenshot -1

Under "Layouts" tab, click on "Add" button and from the next window, choose "United States" from the "Country" drop down menu and

Under the "Variants" drop-down menu choose "USA Dvorak". Now Click "Add" button on the lower right corner.

Screenshot -2

Now we have to "define" a shortcut to switch between the layouts or you can make "Dvorak" the default layout by default (even while at log-in screen).

1. Make it Dvorak by default - From the "Keyboard Preference" window, click on "USA" as shown in the below screenshot (3) and click on the "Remove" icon. That should do it.

Screenshot - 3

2. Switch between keyboards using a short-cut key - This is the best option if you have to share the computer, where others have no idea of what Dvorak is, etc.

In that instance, click on the "USA Dvorak" button on "Keyboard Preference" and click on the "Options" button and from the configuration window you'll see a bold text which says - "Keys to change layout". Under that choose your preferred keyboard shortcut.

Screenshot - 4

That's it. From now on, you should be able to either permanently use a single keyboard layout or switch between more than one in Ubuntu 11.04 or  Gnome in general.

*Update*

How to make a Layout permanent -: There are two main methods that you can make a Layout Permanent. As mentioned in the beginning of this article, other than your primary layout, you can remove all others from the "list" (by clicking on "Remove" button) or you can try the below method instead, which would be the best method since we don't have to remove any layout... so you can switch to a different one later easily in the future.

Within the Keyboard preference window, choose your layout that you want to make default and simply click on the button called "Move UP", take it upwards until it reaches the top position in your layouts.

Example...

Below screenshots show how I made my Keyboard (not a Bluetooth keyboard, standard one... and all of those who has this issue, do you use a Bluetooth keyboard ??) use Dvorak as the default layout by using the "Move UP" button.

1. Chose your Layout... and use that "Move Up" button.

2.Until to the point, where your (Dvorak in this example) primary layout sits at the top of the list.

Hope this helped to resolve few of those switching back to QWERTY issues in the below comments. I've restarted several times and switched between different user accounts, etc just to make sure... this works perfectly fine for me. So no more "automatic switching", hopefully :).

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