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Thursday 20 October 2011

Global applications menu in XFCE

By Ramacandra on Thursday 20 October 2011, 15:51

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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Tuesday 24 November 2009

Tweak GNOME gconf-editor from the command line

By aldeby on Tuesday 24 November 2009, 10:15

Here is how to tweak GNOME gconf-editor parameters from the command line Use the model (this should be all on the same line!): 
gconftool-2 --direct --config-source
xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory
--type Boolean --set /apps/path/to/key True

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Saturday 10 October 2009

VMware Workstation 6.5.3 on Ubuntu Karmic 9.10

By aldeby on Saturday 10 October 2009, 16:53

VMware workstation 6.5.3 is supported only on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 and backwards. With this brief tutorial we'll have a look on how to install it also on Ubuntu Karmic 9.10. By default the installer would freeze at the "Configuring..." stage, never actually completing. 1) The first step consists in installing the program via terminal and suppressing the warnings otherwise eventually stucking the installer. BitOBear has provided a more in depth explanation of what's behind the scenes for the installer to stop. NOTE: I'm considering the 32bit build, if you use the x64 bit build simply replace i386 with x86_64 
chmod u+x VMware-Workstation-6.5.3-185404.i386.bundle
while true; do sudo killall -9 vmware-modconfig-console; sleep 1; done
in a separate terminal run: 
sudo ./VMware-Workstation-6.5.3-185404.i386.bundle --ignore-errors
when the installer has finished, terminate the previous command (while true...) with a CTRL+C or simply close the terminal window. 
vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
BitOBear adds the following tips: a) Once you have a hung installer session you have to kill the python command that is running the installer. Think of that as a step-0 if it comes up. b) If the installer still hangs, the kill loop may not be fast enough; start over but leave the 'sleep 1;' out of the kill loop. It will slow down the install even more, but it is more likely to catch the command in time.
2) The setup step has completed. However you would have to face a few usability issues: a) The mouse automatically ungrabs outside an area of 640 x 480 (vga resolution) edit file 
/etc/vmware/bootstrap
add at the bottom 
VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=force
Leave a trailing line at the end of the file (as Steve suggests in the comments). b) If you cannot use any more modifier keys (CTRL ALT SHIFT INS etc.) first check if you have a residual fix from previous setups which is no more needed now. (If this is the first time you install VMware you can skip this step). Notice, however, that randomly you could still lose modifier keys, typing in any terminal or ALT+F2 field setxkbmap restores them. Furthermore the xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true is still needed if you are willing to install VMware Workstation 7 beta. edit file 
$HOME/.vmware/config
ensure the following text is not present or commented out with a # 
xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true
as an alternative temporary fix you can simply type 
setxkbmap
in any terminal window. This would resume the modifier keys function.
x86_64

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Thursday 8 October 2009

vmware-config.pl gcc version error

By aldeby on Thursday 8 October 2009, 12:03

Your kernel was built with "gcc" version "4.1.3", while you are trying to use
"/usr/bin/gcc" version "4.2.3". This configuration is not recommended and
VMware Server may crash if you'll continue. Please try to use exactly same
compiler as one used for building your kernel. Do you want to go with compiler
"/usr/bin/gcc" version "4.2.3" anyway? [no]
After reading some different ways to fix this problem I found this one, and it worked great. first execute: 
ls -l /usr/bin/gcc*
to see which versions you have installed, this is my output 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     16 2007-12-05 16:21 /usr/bin/gcc -> /usr/bin/gcc-4.2
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 204836 2007-10-19 11:38 /usr/bin/gcc-4.1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 192532 2007-10-14 11:49 /usr/bin/gcc-4.2
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  16312 2007-10-19 11:31 /usr/bin/gccbug-4.1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   2018 2007-04-08 21:57 /usr/bin/gccmakedep
As you may see I have 4.1 and 4.2 versions installed but my gcc command is linked to 4.2, to solve that just enter these commands. 
su -
export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.1
and then again 
./vmware-config.pl

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