Month: April 2014

I am still frustrated with the Unity desktop. I was working in Audacity and had three instances of it open. It was a pain to switch windows. It is the little things like this that hinder me from using Unity full time. For that reason I switched over to the XFCE desktop.

Here is how I customize the XFCE desktop. Since I use Windows 7 at work, my modifications follow that sort of set up. You can set it up however you like.

First thing I do is delete the launcher on bottom. I then move the top panel to the bottom. You do this by right clicking on the panel, select “Panel”, then select “Panel Preferences”. Uncheck “Lock panel”. Then click on the far left of the panel and drag it to bottom of screen. Recheck “Lock panel”. Now it looks more like Windows XP.

I then change workspaces to 1 and then delete workspace icon. I also add show desktop icon. To add just right click, select “Panel”, then select “Add New Items”. Select “Show Desktop” and then click “Add”. To move the icon to the correct place, go to “Panel Preferences” and under the “Items” tab you will see arrow bottons. Highlight “Show Desktop” and use the up arrow to move it up, the down arrow to move it down.

I am cureently using Firefox, so I change default browser to Firefox. You will find this in the Setings Manager under Prefered Applications.

I also change the “Applications Menu” on the bottom right to just read “Menu”. Just right click on the menu icon, select Properties, and change Button Title to “Menu”.

I also change the appearance of the XFCE desktop. In the Settings Manager select Appearance. I then choose under the Style tab Clearlooks. Under the Icon tab I choose GNOME.

XFCE has a cool feature where it will automatically change your background image at set intervals. The easiest way to get to the settings is by right clicking on your desktop and selecting Desktop Settings. I first select the folder where my desktop images are. Then I select “Change the Background”. I leave it at 10 minutes. I also select “Random Order”.

I then add icons to my desktop by dragging and dropping them from the Applications Menu to the desktop. When you drag a program icon to your desktop and then click on it it will say “Untrusted application launcher”. Simply choose “make executable” and that will fix it.

That’s about it. I hope that helps you in your own customization of a great lightweight desktop environment.

Here is how to install XFCE desktop on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr.

First update your system to make sure you have the latest packages.

Open Terminal and copy and paste the following, then press enter. It will ask for your password.

sudo apt-get update

Open Terminal and copy and paste the following, then press enter.

sudo apt-get install xfce4

It will ask if you want to install, type y and press enter.
You are done.

If you uninstall the overlay scrollbars as I recommended in an earlier post, you will not be able to start-up the Unity Tweak Tool. It will tell you that a schema is missing, saying that you need com.canonical.desktop.interface. You will wonder what the heck that is. Well it is part of the overlay scrollbars. You have to reinstall them.

Open a Terminal and copy and paste the following, then press enter:

sudo apt-get install overlay-scrollbar

Now the Unity Tweak Tool will launch. But now you’re back to those horrible scrollbars. You can actually fix this in the Unity Tweak Tool itself. On the very bottom of the page you will see Scrolling, click into that. Then just click Legacy. That’s all there is to it.

First, make the hidden files visible. To do this you open your file manager, click on “View”, and then select “Show Hidden Files.” Navigate to your home folder, and look for “.mozilla”. Your bookmarks, passwords, extensions, and account settings are all stored there. Copy this folder to a USB memory stick. Firefox is now backed up.

To restore your backed up files on a new install, you will need to again make hidden files visible, and navigate to the “.mozilla” folder. Delete everything in the folder, but don’t delete the folder itself. Now just copy and paste the contents of the backed up version of “.mozilla”. Then start Firefox, and all your bookmarks, passwords, extensions, and account settings will be restored.

Personally I take the period of the front so I know it’s on the USB memory stick. Otherwise I might not know it’s on there if I am viewing it without hidden files showing.

First, make the hidden files visible. To do this you open your file manager, click on “View”, and then select “Show Hidden Files.” Navigate to your home folder, and look for “.thunderbird”. Your emails, address book, and account settings are all stored there. Copy this folder to a USB memory stick. Thunderbird is now backed up.

To restore your backed up files on a new install, you will need to first open Thunderbird and skip through the set up until you are in the program. This will created a “.thunderbird” folder. Now close Thunderbird, make hidden files visible, and navigate to the “.thunderbird” folder. Delete everything in the folder, but don’t delete the folder itself. Now just copy and paste the contents of the backed up version of “.thunderbird”. Then restart Thunderbird, and all your emails, address book, and account settings will be restored.

Personally I take the period of the front so I know it’s on the USB memory stick. Otherwise I might not know it’s on there if I am viewing it without hidden files showing.

So here is the easiest way to disabling videos from autoplaying on Facebook. Install the plugin called F.B. Purity. Once it is installed, surf on over to Facebook. It will pop up a window that will let you customize F.B. Purity. Click on Video Stories on the right. Check the box next to “Disable Autoplay”. Then just save and exit. You’re done.

For chrome users, see my older post:
http://JayForrest.org/2014/01/30/how-do-i-disable-autoplay-of-videos-on-facebook/

So i decided to remove Facebook Messenger Web App, but now I have an icon in the drop down menu. So here is hHow to remove the leftover unity webapps facebook messenger icons. All you have to do is just go to “~/.local/share/applications” and delete the file for facebook. You will need to enable viewing of hidden files. That option is under view in the file manager.

I started on Ubuntu in 2008 and ended up switching to Linux Mint in 2011. Now I have returned to Ubuntu with their latest long term service release. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr will be supported until 2019. This is the 20th release of Ubuntu.

The installation went smoothly, with no problems. On my first install, I didn’t check the boxes to install the restricted extras. I choose to do this later using the command line. I had a problem installing the ttf-mscorefonts-installer. I couldn’t click to acknowledge I read the agreement. After a bit of research I discovered that pressing “shift” and “tab” worked to highlight it, then I just clicked enter. A reader said the arrow keys worked for them.

Having come from Linux Mint, there were a number of things I had to get used to. Before I installed Ubuntu 14.04 I knew I would have to retrain myself on the Unity desktop. My motor skills are accustomed to a certain way of doing things. But I was ready to learn a different, maybe better way.

One lingering difficulty is having the close, minimize, maximize buttons on the left, rather than right side. I understand why they designed them to be on the left, but I am still retaining myself. It doesn’t help that I use Windows 7 at work.

I do like the dash, with its ability to search for applications. It actually seems faster than clicking a menu and searching through it. I noticed that in this version you have the option to have your application menus appear in the program’s window when it is not maximized. Which only makes sense to me.

I am also glad that full menus have been restored to most apps. I understand that the GNOME developers are dispensing with traditional desktop menus, so Ubuntu has patched them back in.

I have also done a few tweaks. I added an equalizer to Rhythmbox. I removed Amazon from the launcher. I enabled the Firewall. I edited the security and privacy settings to turn off online search. I switched back to standard scrollbars. I have installed compizconfig-settings-manager so when I click on an open program in the Unity launcher, it will minimize.

The final word is that, although Ubuntu 14.04 is not perfect, it is still a top-notch release. It is now my Linux distribution of choice.

For more of my tricks and tips for Ubuntu 14.04
http://JayForrest.org/2014/04/04/things-to-do-after-installing-ubuntu-14-04/

UPDATE (04/21/2014)
Do not install web apps or indicator apps in Ubuntu 14.04. For example my weather indicator does not work right and messes with the screen graphics. I have also heard the calendar app does too. The only exception is Conky, which seems to be working fine.

Here are the instructions to get the Unity launcher to minimize when you click on an application.

Open Terminal and copy and paste the following, press enter (it will ask for your password)

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then open CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM). Select Ubuntu Unity Plugin, then Launcher tab. Check the box that says “Minimize Single Window Applications”. And you’re done.

The best Firefox theme is a very subjective thing. I wanted an Ubuntu theme. Ubuntu Ambience is nice, but very plain. I wanted something with a little more to it. I decided on Ubuntu Dust. It is a dark gray with the Ubuntu symbol on the right.

LINK
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ubuntu-dust/