English Ubuntued: July 2008

Adjust the transparency of window decorations

The special effects (Compiz) of ubuntu windows use the GTK by default. To adjust the transparency of the windows just go to the configuration editor of GNOME and change the values in the way you want.
1. Press ALT+F2 to open "Run Application";
2. Write gconf-editor and run;
3. Go to apps->gwd and you’ll find the following lines:

metacity_theme_active_opacity -> Value of transparency of the windows on which we are working;
metacity_theme_opacity -> Value of transparency of the windows which are behind.

Value "1" indicates "without any transparency"; value "0" indicates "maximum transparency" (other than invisibility).

Find the quickest repository

Ubuntu offers a huge variety of repository servers. There are servers in many countries and many of these countries have more than one server. But, which one is the fastest?

There is an option which tests which server is the fastest to respond to our connection.

Procedure:

Go to Synaptic Package Manager (System-> Administration-> Synaptic Package Manager);
Settings->Repositories;
In the tab "Software Ubuntu" there’s an option which says "Download from". Click on it and then on "Other…";
A new window is displayed and you’ve just to click on the button "Select Best Server"

Mount ISO files with just 2 clicks

Sometimes we need to use ISO files, but we don’t want to record a CD/DVD for that purpose. But mounting an iso file, without scripts, would be a little complicated for beginners, so it is best to install two scripts, one to mount and the other one to unmount.

You simply have to download the files mount and unmount and install them in the nautilus. If you don’t know how to install scripts, visit this link.

This information was taken from this site:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=87369

Increase Ubuntu speed with preload

Preload is a program which analyses the applications the user uses the most to subsequently predict what applications will be run. Therefore, it stores the dependencies of those programs in the computer’s memory, in order to be faster to boot up.

Install preload

For further information:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/preload

I strongly advise you to use this program!

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Spelling correction on kile

For those who don’t have KDE installed on Ubuntu, having the spelling correction on kile (one of the best programs to work in latex) is a big problem. The solution is to install the package aspell, and manually force the applications of KDE to use this package for the corrections.

Therefore, the process is the following:

install aspell-en;
open the terminal and write:
gedit ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals
add this to the end of the file:
[KSpell]
KSpell_Client=1
KSpell_DictFromList=1
KSpell_Dictionary=en
KSpell_Encoding=11
KSpell_NoRootAffix=0
KSpell_RunTogether=0

Update:
In order not to waste much time, the solution is simple, just do what’s indicated in line 1, and write this in the terminal:

echo -e "\n[KSpell]\nKSpell_Client=1\nKSpell_DictFromList=1\nKSpell_Dictionary=en \nKSpell_Encoding=11\nKSpell_NoRootAffix=0\nKSpell_RunTogether=0\n" tee -a ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals

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How to install Nautilus scripts

Installing Nautilus scripts is a somewhat tedious process so it is best to install a script that will automatically install the scripts. However, we continue with the same problem, we have to install at least one script in that boring way.

Thus, to install a script we should do the following process:

copy the script into the home folder;
go to terminal and write:

cp [script's name] ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts

and then write (please note that the script's name is attached to the slash "/"):

chmod u+x ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/[script's name]

As I said earlier, it’s best for you to install a script that installs scripts, so here’s a hint:

Download this file;
Copy the file into the home folder;
Open the terminal application;
Write:

cp make-nautilus-script ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts

and write:

chmod u+x ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/make-nautilus-script

And that’s it, from now on when it’s necessary to install a script, just click on the right mouse button on the file you want to install and choose scripts->make-nautilus-script.

Note that I found the file on the site http://g-scripts.sourceforge.net/, which has many other scripts.

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Learn which version of Ubuntu you have

It’s very likely that everyone knows which version of Ubuntu they are using, nonetheless, here is the command of the terminal:

cat/etc/issue

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PrintScreen of a window

You can do a PrintScreen of a window by simply clicking on the PrtScrn button of the keyboard. Thus, a window will be displayed in order to save a picture of the screen.

To only capture the current window, just click on Alt+PrtScrn. Very easy.

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