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Frédéric Delorme  //  Java/J2EE Expert
Technical Manager
Web Standard evangelizer

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ubuntu

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Aug 1 / 9:06am

Samsung R580, Ubuntu 10.04 and Brightness control

For unknown (anyway, for my side) reason, the NVIDIA driver is not well configured after installation on the Samsung R580. In fact, brightness control does not work, with Fn+Keys or using the brightness applet, telling back to you that "Brightness status can not be read in Bios side".

So, in only one line, the issue can be solved: just edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and add the following line (the bold one)  into the Device section:

Section "Device"

  Identifier "Default Device"

  Driver "nvidia"

  Option "NoLogo" "True"

  Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"

EndSection

And that's it ! Brightness control with Fn+keys is working great.

thanks to this forum entry (end of page) : http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1357776.html
 

Have fun !

Filed under  //  10.04   brightness   control   R580   samsung   ubuntu  

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Jul 11 / 4:18am

Gnome-Do and Docky, or the user oriented interface

Logo for Gnome-Do, a simple gear on a light star purple background.
Logo for Docky, an anchor on ligth star blue background.

You know how you have some automated behaviour when you are working on a computer: how to open a file, how to launch any tool, etc...  So you know how Microsoft Windows contribute to open Computer to people, but also how it contributes to format "User" usage about User interface and behaviour !

So, in the Linux world, during years, the goal was to bring to Linux user a User Interface oriented free Operating System. And during the few 2 or 3 last years, big evolution are drop in the pipe of Gnome evolution. First tries were gnome-shell and gnome-zeitgheist. But these tools are not matue for People.
Screenshots?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=Screenshot-gnome-shell-overview.png
Gnome Shell, The new Gnome Desktop approach
So , Gnome Do and Docky are some of these beautiful tools design for easy life ! Gnome Do will enable you to launch any tools, docs, contacts just with one key shortcut and keying the first letters of the action you want to do!  Docky is another MacOSX Dock Icon clone. But a well integrated one for the Gnome Desktop.
So launching an application or accessing one of the last docuemnt you've just write have never been so easy !
Gnome Do
Launching an application :
ubuntu-gnome-do-1.png
Mail to one of your contact:
ubuntu-gnome-do-2.png
And just retreiving one of your Google Docs:
ubuntu-gnome-do-3.png
Anyway, you are able to configure any interaction between Gnome-DO and your desktop enviroment, thanks to numerous plugins already existing which are able to connect to all the main applications you use everyday.
ubuntu-gnome-do-preferences.png 
Docky
More as usual in our desktop, the docked toolbar at bottom screen is one of the most popular way to start an application. Docky is one of the most integrated to Gnome with a lot of customization for geeks :)
Very easy to use and configure, just drag and drop icon of applications you want to be able to include in the dock bar. 
Multiple skin exists for the Dock bar appearance, so just choose the one that's feat better to your own desire. 
And start apps !
ubuntu-gnome-docky.png
Gnome Docky - The Gnome Desktop Dock Bar by excellence !
And a lot of docklets (greffons in french) are available to enhanced your user experience, adding Weather, GMail state icon, Time, Battery life, Processor performance, and so on ...
Also exists Plugins (greffons in french language), to connect Docky to other application like liferay, Gajim, Rythmbox, etc...
Docklets preferences tab :
ubuntu-gnome-docky-prefs-docklets.png
Plugins preferences tab :
ubuntu-gnome-docky-prefs-plugins.png
So now, just Start Apps and enjoy ;)
Filed under  //  design   do   docky   gnome   ubuntu   ui   usability  

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Jun 12 / 3:48pm

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my Samsung R580

I have just received my new laptop, and have already installed Ubuntu as my default OS. Only one thing remain unreachable, the Brigthness control :(

But, thanks to the voria (https://launchpad.net/~voria/+archive/ppa) PPA , I am able to use, network, Wifi, and all other features as suspend, hibernate and so on.
 
Ubuntu needed cheat sheet for this PPA:
 
Filed under  //  10.04   laptop   linux   R580   samsung   ubuntu  

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May 4 / 3:48pm

Ubuntu 10.04: a social edition

Ubuntu 10.04 bring a lot of interesting features on social side, twitter, facebook, and so on. But...
The new Look of the gnome interface contains a strange choice about User interface:  The window buttons side !

Left side for window size and action management is, IMHO, a wrong choice.

Right side is what human kind is usefull with.

So to bring back old uses :

Start gconf-editor, and go to the apps/metacity/general configuration to edit the button_layout key, and set:


menu:maximize,minimize,close

 
(full story and guide here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13535/move-window-buttons-back-to-the-right-in-ubuntu-10.04/).

and get your window with the right side ;)

Filed under  //  10.04   button   linux   metacity   ubuntu   window  

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Oct 18 / 9:45am

Gnome Shell

One of the next best evolution of gnome 3 has a name:  Gnome Shell
It's a great change in the desktop concept. On the same screen, you are able to launch application, find last document, create, delete, select a virtual desktop in an all-in-on full integrated 3D interface.

Welcome in the next generation of the Linux Desktop.

     
Click here to download:
ubuntu-gnome-shell.zip (845 KB)

Filed under  //  desktop   gnome   shell   ubuntu  

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Jan 26 / 4:39pm

How to install rmagick extension to ruby on Ubuntu ?

That's a very good question as the rubygems embedded in the debian package is a limited edition where you are not able to make an "update --system".

So first thing to do:

 sudo apt-get remove rubygems

Then, from www.rubyonrails.com, follow the rubygems installation tutorial:
- download the archive delivered from rubyforge,
- tar -zxvf rubygems-1.3.1.tgz

and:
 cd /rubygems-1.3.1
 sudo ruby setup.rb

and follow with a :
 sudo gem update --system

OK, rubygems is now up to date.

Go on installation of rmagick:

 sudo apt-get install ruby1.8-dev
 sudo apt-get install g++ automake autoconf
 sudo apt-get install libmagick++10
 sudo apt-get install libmagick++9-dev
 sudo gem install rmagick

and then you will get the following console output:

frederic@nostromo2:~/Logiciels/development/ruby/rubygems-1.3.1$ sudo gem install rmagick
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed rmagick-2.9.0
1 gem installed

And now, you will be able to use the Rails plugin named file_column; cd into your rails project:
 cd myprojectsrails
 script/plugin install http://opensvn.csie.org/rails_file_column/plugins/file_column/trunk

And enjoy !
Filed under  //  file_column   imagemagick   rails   rmagick   ruby   ubuntu  

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Nov 27 / 1:25am

Ubuntu 8.10 on EeePC 900 : easy mode !

Note:
First thing to get it working is to be sure you will be able to connect your netbook to ethernet in wire mode.

----

Installation of Ubuntu 8.10 Live on a USB key.

The best way to do rule this part is to use the famous UnetBootIn. this tool will allow you to install easily your prefered Linux Distro, here we will choose Ubuntu 8.10 live, on a USB key. Please choose a 1Gb sized k

The best way to do rule this part is to use the famous UnetBootIn. this tool will allow you to install easily your prefered Linux Distro, here we will choose Ubuntu 8.10 live, on a USB key. Please choose a 1Gb sized key to be quiet.

So just download unetbootin (twin versions exists : a windows and a linux version), and run it. If you are on Linux, you will be asked to install another debian package containing 7z. You will find a page on the official french Ubuntu site, on in the Ubuntu-eee site explaining how to use it.

EeePC 900: get it work !

Now the easiest part of this how-to: install Ubuntu 8.10 on your EeePC. Just click on the Install icon the Desk after booting on just prepared before USB Key. To boot on it, push the ESC key and choose the USB Device, while your Eee PC is just switch on and you get the grey screen with the EeePC logo.

After installing this, connect your Ethernet wire and update your just installed Ubuntu. now you are ready to customize your netbook OS accordingly to the EeePC capacities (Wifi, CPU frequency tools, Energy saving, etc...)

Wifi

We will have 2 steps to do:

  1. - remove existing ATH modules
  2. - install backported from Hardy Heron the ath5k module.

Remove the existing modules:

sudo modprobe -r ath_pci
sudo modprobe -r ath_hal

Add to the balck list these 2 modules:

edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add the 2 following lines at the end:

blacklist ath_pci
blacklist ath_hal

Connect to the internet through ethernet (get wired !) and backport modules from Hardy Heron:

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic

Now, just reboot, and you will get the wifi running, and will be able to configure your wireless connection via NetworkManager.

CPU frequency managing

To activate the cpu frequency selector, you will have to install the following:

sudo apt-get install gnome-cpufreq-selector

And now edit /etc/modules and add this line at the end:

load p4-clockmod

Energy Saving

To enable the cpu frequency adaptor following energy mode, you will have to modify registry with gconf-editor.

dpkg --reconfigure gnome-applets

powertop will could easily help you reducing energy consumption by analyzing actual energy wasts and give you useful tips on how to save.

sudo apt-get install powertop

For more information on the Gnome Power management, see this page.

And that's all folk !

to be continued ....

Filed under  //  8.10   eeepc   installation   intrepid ibex   linux   ubuntu  

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Nov 4 / 8:14am

how this *%ù$£^ù* of WPA AES-CCMP Wifi will work on my EeePC 900

I'm trying to make connection to a WPA AES-CCMP crypted Wireless network from my EeePC 900 running Ubuntu 8.04.1, but with no success.

MAC address (HWAddress ?) has been autorised on the french "livebox" modem router.

Wireless network has been configured on the EeePC, WAP key well filled, and connection launched.

But nothing !

nm-applet crash !

no network....

Please, someone, Help Me !

Filed under  //  aes   ccmp   eeepc   network   ubuntu   wifi   wireless   wpa  

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Oct 26 / 1:17pm

Three new tools on my EeePC 900

Micro blogging, updated sites detection, and fast launching anything on my netbook running Ubuntu eee 8.04.1  is what is now possible thank to the following fabulous tools:

Gwibber

It's a webkit based poster for any blog/twitter/facebook platform. Well rendered, the tool use the apple opensourced version of webkit, the HTML renderer. with a userfriendly interface, anybody can now feed its muti sourced blogs and be advertized when a known and wel configured site was updated.

Specto

It's an old tool, but nothing replace this llittle thing which permit you tobe informed when a site was updated, giving a little mesage from the gnome panel that the site John Doe was updated.

Gnome-Do

the faster way to start anything on your laptop ! Just push the "super"+"space" combination keys and you'll just have to input some first letters of what you want to do, "facebook" for exemple will open your bookmark from firefox or epiphany to te facebook site, "text" will route you to the "OpenOffice Text writer" and if more than one item respond to your input, a list will appear pressing "down key", and then, just hit the "enter" or "return" key and that's all !

[edit] Add the --mini parameter to the gnome-do command and you'll get a well netbook feated UI !  great, thanks to Alex for the tips.

Thanks to opensource software to solve all these every day life problems ;)

 

Filed under  //  eeepc   linux   netbook   tools   ubuntu  

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Oct 17 / 6:01am

EeePC + Ubuntu + Locked session

Since I've installed Ubuntu-eee on my EeePc 900, i've notice a strange behaviour of the X server. Each time I locked my session, i was unable to unlock it with my right password while I could connect on a new session...  

Digging the google ground (the net...) i found this post that save myself and my eeepc (an my mind sanity :)


All the problem rely on a simple file permission issue !

Just correct the file permission of the unix_chkpwd command with the following command lines:

chown root:shadow /sbin/unix_chkpwd
chmod 2755 /sbin/unix_chkpwd

That's all.

Thanks to michaelkahl whose solve the problem.

Filed under  //  eeepc   linux   locked   netbook   session   ubuntu  

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