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Thursday 8 December 2011

Change the hostname and domain of ubuntu/linux

By Ramacandra on Thursday 8 December 2011, 01:01 - Admin

Hostname and domain in ubuntu linux are displayed follwoing the pattern:

username@hostname.domain

In order to change the latter two open a terminal and type:

sudo hostname host.domain

replacing host.domain with your own e.g. laptop.aldeby

Ensure that the changes are also reflected in the following files:

/etc/hosts
/etc/hostname
/etc/resolv.conf

The latter is only needed if you have edited it before, otherwise simply reboot your computer or restart networking services.

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Thursday 20 October 2011

Global applications menu in XFCE

By Ramacandra on Thursday 20 October 2011, 15:51 - Visual

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric has been released, now only featuring the Gnome 3 Shell blob and Ubuntu Unity threat (check what the "zeitgeist" dependency is for).

Luckily Linux is not Ubuntu and therefore other alternative still exist: XFCE (Xubuntu) is a very valid one which is likely to see its user-base vastly increased (at least +2 with Linux Torvalds and Me).

Ubuntu Unity has brilliant underlying ideas, among which the Global Applications Menu integrated in the top toolbar. Luckily, thanks to "aaronlewis1989" this is also available for XFCE 4.8. This is Linux flexibility: being free to keep the best ideas and dump everything not worth it. It's such a pity that someone in Canonical (Ubuntu) is trying to implement the same approach regular monopolistic companies do: forcing costumers to accept a compromise and surrender some right every time a new feature is implemented.

XFCE global app menu source and binaries (x86 32bit) are [available at this page|http://gtk-apps.org/content/show.php/OMG+!+XFCE+Global+Menu+%5BOneiric+Only%5D?content=146102].

If you run a x86_64 (64bit) system you need to compile the source, which is a very easy job by the way!

Install a few dependencies first:

sudo apt-get install synaptic indicator-appmenu appmenu-gtk appmenu-qt appmenu-gtk3 firefox-globalmenu thunderbird-globalmenu xfce4-panel-dev libxfce4util-dev libindicator-dev

then unpack the tarball 146102-xfce4-appmenu-plugin_0.10.orig.tar.bz2 and open a terminal navigate inside the folder (if you have unpacked it in your home type)

cd xfce4-appmenu-plugin-0.10

now type

./configure --libexecdir=/usr/lib/xfce4-indicator-plugin/ --prefix=/usr

make

sudo make install

log out, log in again and right click on your XFCE panel and add the Indicator Appmenu Plugin!

Enjoy your 10px extra vertical real estate!! :D

Troubleshooting:

  • Should you run into this error message:
    The required package libxfce4panel-1.0 was not found on your system.
You won't find package "libxfce4panel-1.0" in Ubuntu 11.10, the required files are instead included in package: "xfce4-panel-dev"

  • If you cannot find the Indicator Appmenu Plugin applet among the available panel applets, please ensure you have typed:
 ./configure --libexecdir=/usr/lib/xfce4-indicator-plugin/ --prefix=/usr
rather than simply

./configure

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Monday 26 September 2011

Search for telephone numbers in Mozilla Thunderbird Address Book

By Ramacandra on Monday 26 September 2011, 15:19 - Office

Many thanks fly to Abhijit for having spotted a way to search for telephone numbers in Mozilla Thunderbird Address Book. You can read more on his blog at: http://ifacethoughts.net/2010/08/09/configuring-thunderbirds-addressbook-search

In short you need to access the config editor and look for the string:

mail.addr_book.quicksearchquery.format

the string content feature the 'attr' fields that are searched by the quick search bar (you may type 'attr' to see all the possible fields.

e.g. my string content is:

?(or(PrimaryEmail,c,@V)(DisplayName,c,@V)(FirstName,c,@V)(LastName,c,@V)(CellularNumber,c,@V)(HomePhone,c,@V)(Notes,c,@V)(PagerNumber,c,@V)(FaxNumber,c,@V)(WorkPhone,c,@V))

which searches the Primary Email, the Display Name, the Cellular Number, the Home Phone, etc...

Mozilla Thunderbird is such a powerful program! It's users are even more powerful though! :D

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Saturday 24 September 2011

Windows 8 boycotts linux

By Ramacandra on Saturday 24 September 2011, 21:37 - GNU/Linux

Windows 8 certified systems will make it either more difficult or impossible to install alternative operating systems.

M$ is compulsory requiring EFI Secure Boot feature to be enabled, which will prevent competing operating systems to be booted. Disabling this restriction, pardon "feature", will be optional and at the discretion of Firmware manufacturers and OEM (such as Lenovo, HP, Dell, etc.). The extra money and/or benefits M$ will provide OEM in case they abide with its requirements will certainly push these companies to maximize their revenues instead of caring of the 0.1% or less users of Linux.

Read more on this on the Matthew Garret (RedHat) blog: http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/5850.html

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