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Repairing and Installing Flash plugin for Firefox in Ubuntu 7.10 December 19, 2007

Posted by ubuntuanswers in Ubuntu Fixes.
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version. Now you’ll need to remove all vestiges of the flashplugin-nonfree package from your system.

  1. Close all instances of Firefox .

  2. Open a Terminal Applications>Accessories>Terminal and enter: 
    sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-nonfree
  3. To navigate to where you saved the new Flash installer: 
    cd ~/Desktop
  4. Extract the installer: 
    tar xzf install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz
  5. The extracted file will be on your desktop, open this new folder and double click the install file: install_flash_player_9_linux
  6. Follow the onscreen prompts ( in a new termianl window that opens up) until you are asked where to install the player. The default is “y” :
  7. Answer “y” to proceed with the installation, then “n” for another installation.
  8. Close the Terminal by entering: 
    exit

Congratulations! You have the latest and greatest Flash Player running on your system.

“Object” Docks in Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy December 14, 2007

Posted by ubuntuanswers in Ubuntu Add-ons, Ubuntu Tweaks.
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An great program to give you that dock similiar to the type found on Mac’s for launching programs is Awn

To get AWN in Gutsy:

1. Run this command in the terminal Applications>Accessories>Terminal

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Add these to the end of the file that opens:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator

Click Save and exit gedit.

3. Run these in the terminal ( just cut and paste):

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/reacocard.asc
sudo apt-key add reacocard.asc
rm reacocard.asc
sudo apt-get update
4. Then run this command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr

Awn will be installed activate it by Applications/Accessories/Avant Window Navigator

Configuring Mozilla fonts (firefox and thunderbird) December 13, 2007

Posted by ubuntuanswers in Ubuntu Add-ons, Ubuntu Setup.
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Mozilla Firefox

In FireFox:

Click the ‘Edit‘ menu and select ‘Preferences’.

Select the ‘Content‘ tab at the top, and under “Fonts & Colors”, click ‘Advanced...’

Set the following fonts:

Proportional: Serif Size: 16

Serif: Georgia

Sans-serif: Verdana

Monospace: Bitstream Vera Sans Mono Size: 14

 

Click ‘OK‘

On high resolution monitors, web page text in Firefox may seem a bit small. An excellent add-on is the No Squint plugin: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592. I like to have my text set at 110%, but your preferences may vary. Some sites don’t scale as well as others with the enlarged text, but you can always use CTRL and + or – to make the text larger or smaller for those sites.

Mozilla Thunderbird

In ThunderBird:

Click the ‘Edit‘ menu and select ‘Preferences‘.

Select the ‘Display‘ tab at the top, and under “Fonts & Encodings”, click ‘Fonts…’

Set the following fonts:

Proportional: Serif Size: 16

Serif: Georgia

Sans-serif: Verdana

Monospace: Lucida Sans typewriter Size: 14

Recommended Software for Ubuntu (using Synaptic) December 13, 2007

Posted by ubuntuanswers in Ubuntu Add-ons, Ubuntu Setup.
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Additional software to enhance your Ubuntu experience can be added throught the Synaptic Package Manager (System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager)

  • cups-pdf (allows you to print directly to a PDF file)

  • kdepim-suite (information management applications, contains many helpful tools)

  • koffice (office suite, including Kthesaurus and Krita graphics software)

  • kaffeine-mozilla (plugin for streaming audio & video formats when using Firefox)

  • lame (for creating MP3 audio—required for MP3 export in Audacity and other software)

  • libdvdcss2 (required for DVD playback. NOTE: only download this if you already have a legal license for DVD playback software (such as playback software that was shipped with your DVD-ROM drive). Otherwise, it is not legal and you should purchase LinDVD or another commercial DVD playback software for Linux if you wish to play DVDs on your system.)

  • openoffice.org-galleries (additional clip art and graphics files for OpenOffice.org)

  • RealPlayer (Real media player)

  • RealPlayer-rpnp (plugin for Firefox)

  • webcore-fonts (standard web fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, etc.)

  • win32-codecs (contains Win32 essential codec binaries required for the decompression of video formats that have no or limited open source alternatives (eg. some Quicktime, RealPlayer or Windows media codecs)

  • wine (allows you to install and run many (but not all) Windows programs)

Optional Cool Software

  • audacity (audio editing software that can export as WAV, MP3 or OGG)

  • audacity-manual (user manual)

  • bluefish (web page editor—many features for advanced users)

  • cmake, gcc-c++, kdebase-devel, libgtk+1.2-devel, libgtk+2.0_0-devel (these libraries are needed for compiling some software, which is necessary for a lot of software that is not available in the PSLinuxOS repository)

  • fonts-ttf-freefont (additional fonts)

  • gtk-qt-engine (recommended if you want to make your KDE and GTK apps have a similar look-and-feel)

  • inkscape (vector graphics designer, similar to Adobe Illustrator)

  • kde-kickercolors (additional KDE panel skins)

  • additional KDE visual styles and window decorations: I find the following to be quite good:

    • kdemoreartwork-ia_ora (Ia Ora KDE visual style)

    • kdemoreartwork-knifty (Knifty KDE visual style)

    • kdemoreartwork-polyester (Polyester KDE visual style)

    • kdemoreartwork-powder (Powder KDE visual style)

  • kdeutils-kfloppy (tool for formatting floppy disks—not necessary if you don’t intend to use floppy disks)

  • keytouch (for configuring the extra (multimedia) keys on your keyboard)

  • kino (video editing software)

  • kompozer (WYSIWYG web page editor, similar to Microsoft FrontPage, for those who want to design a web page, but don’t know how to code in HTML)

  • kpowersave (battery monitoring and suspend/standby triggers for laptops)

  • scribus (desktop publishing software, like Microsoft Publisher)

  • shorewall (firewall—do not install if you intend on using DansGuardian parental controls)

Installing Microsoft Truetype fonts in Ubuntu December 13, 2007

Posted by ubuntuanswers in Ubuntu Add-ons, Ubuntu Setup.
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You can install the MS core fonts by installing the msttcorefonts package. To do this, use the following command from the command line in the terminal Applications>Accessories>Terminal:

$sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

This will give you the core fonts, but if there are other TrueType fonts that you want installed, it is as easy as copying the font files to the ~/.fonts/ directory ( Places>Home folder>.fonts,) to see hidden files when you open the home folder, click view and show hidden files in the toolbar.

After installing new fonts, you will have to log out and log in again to be able to see and use the new fonts.

If you are unable to download the package log in as root ( this is something you don’t want to do often)

Open a terminal  and enter:

su [enter] 

password [your password, then enter]

If you don’t know the password go into system/administration/users and groups

highlight root and click on properties

you will see a portion where you can change the password to one you know then click ok.

retry to login to your terminal as root

Installing Ubuntu Studio Theme on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon December 13, 2007

Posted by ubuntuanswers in Ubuntu Tweaks.
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1. Install Ubuntu Studio theme, this includes the GTK and Metacity theme. With the following command in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme

2. Install Ubuntu Studio icon theme:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-icon-theme

3. Install Ubuntu Studio GDM theme:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-gdm-theme

4. Install Ubuntu Studio wallpapers:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-wallpapers

Of course, you can also get meta package ubuntustudio-look, but this will remove ubuntu-sounds package.

 

Or lastly download the entire bundle using Synaptic Package manager

Installing Photoshop 7.0 in Ubuntu using Wine December 13, 2007

Posted by ubuntuanswers in Ubuntu Tweaks.
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If you decided to install Photoshop using Wine here is a simple tutorial I found to accomplish this task.
I checked for Photoshop compatibility in the Wine website and found that there were some problems in the CS versions (although this tutorial tempted me into trying it). While I use Photoshop CS, I know that with the tasks that I do, I can get by with just using Photoshop 7.0. The Wine website lists good feedback on using Photoshop 7.

PHOTOSHOP INSTALLER. The Adobe Photoshop 7.0 installer running in Linux using Wine. Click on photo to enlarge.

I copied the Photoshop 7 installer from my backup hardrive to my USB stick and used it for the installation. The installation was pretty straightforward as I had added Wine earlier (version 0.9.33) using the Add Remove applications tool in Ubuntu.

I just attached the USB stick containing the installation folder, right-clicked on setup.exe then chose open with other application and typed wine in the custom command. After that, the familiar Adobe Photoshop installer took over.

I finished the installation and created an application launcher in my bottom panel. But before I added the launcher, I first searched around for a .png icon to be used with the Photoshop launcher. I then saved the icon, using Gnome commander running as root, to /usr/share/pixmaps/.

To add the Photoshop launcher: 1. I right-clicked on the bottom panel, 2. chose custom application launcher, 3. added wine "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Photoshop.exe" as command, 4. chose the Photoshop icon. According to this site Save for web will not work if you use forward slashes to point to the Photoshop.exe file.

Installing a theme in Ubuntu 7.10 December 13, 2007

Posted by ubuntuanswers in Ubuntu Tweaks.
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GDM themes – these go in /usr/share/gdm
these are for the login manager

GTK themes – these go in /usr/share/themes
many Gthemes contain the gtk theme, the metacity theme, and a index.theme file. sometime they may just contain the gtk2 and gtk1 theme. sometime they may contain the gtk2 themes and a metacity theme without an index.theme file. when you go to themes section in the gnome control centre, you will see some themes on the left hand side. these are themes that contain, and are defined by, an index.theme file. and this file contains the name of the theme(eg Clearlooks-DarkOrange), what gtk theme is used, what metacity theme is used, and what icon theme is used. you can easily create your own themes using this file. for example, suppose that you want to create a theme called ‘DarkBlue’, you would creat a directory in /usr/share/themes called DarkBlue. then create an index.theme file (i usually just get hold of another index.them file from another theme and copy it to use as a template). place the index.them file in the DarkBlue directory. suppose also that you want to use Tango icons, Clearlooks-DarkBlue gtk theme and Hierbia metacity theme. this is an example of what the index.theme file would look like:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=DarkBlue
Type=X-GNOME-Metatheme
Comment=My made up dark blue theme
Encoding=UTF-8

[X-GNOME-Metatheme]
GtkTheme=Clearlooks-DarkBlue
MetacityTheme=Hierbia
IconTheme=Tango

notice that if you go to the icon directory, the name of the tango icons are called ‘Tango’. if you put ‘tango’, the icons won’t be found. same for the metacity and gtk themes. note that they are case sensitive.

You can very easily download a theme from gnome-looks.org and unpack the files in your home/username/.themes folder. Make sure that an index.theme file is included for it to show up in your theme control centre.

metacity themes – these go in /usr/share/themes
occassionally, metacity themes sometime come with the metacity theme and an index.theme file.

icon themes – these go in /usr/share/icons