How to hibernate in Ubuntu

You missing hibernate. Here how to get it back.

How to install Libre Office 3.5 in Ubuntu

The newest and the fastest open source office suite is here.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

PyQt4 or QtRuby - memory comparison

Well, this is another Python vs Ruby article, hope it is useful.
Today I have measured memory consumption of QtRuby against PyQt4. quite similar scripts were used in both tests and the results are here:
Python and Qt

Python 3.3           - 11,040K  / 19,456K shared memory
Python 2.7.3        - 10,056K  / 19,008K shared memory
Ruby 1.9.3p327  -   9,380K  /  21,660K shared memory

The memory consumption is very similar too. Writing the code in QtRuby is more pleasant though.

and here are the sources:
Python:


import sys
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *

if __name__ == "__main__":
  app = QApplication(sys.argv)
  widget = QWidget()

  widget.setWindowTitle("Hello QtPython xxxx")
  widget.resize(200,100)

  button = QPushButton("Quit")
  button.clicked.connect(QApplication.quit)

  label = QLabel("Hello Qt in the Python way!")

  layout = QVBoxLayout()
  layout.addWidget(button, 0, Qt.AlignCenter)
English: Official Ruby logo Русский: Официальн...
  layout.addWidget(label, 0, Qt.AlignCenter)

  widget.setLayout(layout)

  widget.show()
  sys.exit(app.exec_())

Ruby:



require 'Qt4'

Qt::Application.new(ARGV) do
    Qt::Widget.new do

        self.window_title = 'Hello QtRuby v1.0'
        resize(200, 100)

        button = Qt::PushButton.new('Quit') do
            connect(SIGNAL :clicked) { Qt::Application.instance.quit }
        end

        label = Qt::Label.new('<big>Hello Qt in the Ruby way!</big>')

        self.layout = Qt::VBoxLayout.new do
            add_widget(label, 0, Qt::AlignCenter)
            add_widget(button, 0, Qt::AlignRight)
        end

        show
    end

    exec
end
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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Firefox 16 has security vulnerability, do not install

Mozilla Firefox Logo
Firefox 16 appeared in Ubuntu 12.04 repos as an update two days before, and I installed it like usual. Now, Mozilla have withdrawn it because the security vulnerability. The bug allow the attacker to see your browsing history. For now, Firefox 15.0.1 is considered stable and bug free.

Ubuntu 12.04 users, who already installed Firefox 16 - like me, have to deinstall the buggy Firefox and install the stable (if you have it) or wait for an updated version
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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Calligra Suite - a different office suite

Calligra Suite is an office suite, part of KDE community software.  It targets mainly Linux and FreeBSD, though some preliminary support for Mac OS X and Windows exists. I have heard about it long time ago and if I recall well, it is supposed to be descendant to the KOffice. I have tested KOffice before and I did'nt like it. Let me see if Calligra is better.

From their site: Calligra Suite  consists of "comprehensive set of 8 applications which satisfies the office, graphics and management needs". This include word processor, spreadsheet, presentation application, graphics applications for raster and vector graphics, project management and a visual database editor.



Installation of newly Calligra 2.5.2 in Ubuntu is quite easy - Calligra is available in Kubuntu backports for 12.04 and in main repos for 12.10. For Ubuntu 12.04 you have to add the repo
ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports and then install it:

(commands for konsole users)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt-get install calligra

Calligra looks different with their big sidebars (panels). Panels just take too much place for a simple task like editing a letter. But if you take a look carefully, you'll see how much power Caligra has. The panels are full with options, buttons for various tasks etc.  Spreadsheet application has option to show function result over selected area in statusbar, but it has not quick button for summing selected area (row or column). Instead it shows the huge dialog with plenty of functions to select.
On top of that, when I tried Kexi - the database editor - it even showed me the MS Ribbon like interface - very strange.




Caligra is integrated office suite - you can insert spreadsheet in your text document. Or you can insert graphics, previously edited with some of graphics tools like Karbon or Krita, included in the suite. But wait.... when I double click to edit it, nothing happened. It looks like the integration level is too low - only tables are editable, graphics are not. I mean, you cannot open Krita editor in your text document to applly a change to your drawing.



Calligra also support wide range of document document formats. I'm pleased to know it can open Visio and MS Works and MS Office 2007/2010 OOXML documents. Lets hope the support is good enough.

Despite that, I found some annoying things. No, not bugs, but yes, the interface is quite unpolished. I need a zoom like one found in Gimp. But I can't find the zoom tool in many applications (it was in menu, but i can not bring it to toolbars).  In Krita when I scroll with mouse, the document zooms. When I unset that option in configuration screen, it still zoom the document with scroll button. Very odd.  The tool icon attached to the mouse pointer is also very ugly, like ones before 20 years or more.




Will I use Calligra ? Of course yes, from time to time - just to see if something has improved. It is not that familiar to me, nor polished, but yes, Calligra is quite ready for work, and if they'll fix the interface, Calligra might become a serious competitor to the LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape.

Friday, September 28, 2012

How to permanently change screen resolution in Ubuntu

Today I tried Kubuntu & Ubuntu 12.10 beta2 in my Virtual Box. Then I went o the friend who has a Mac and I asked him to run Ubuntu on his Mac. Unfortunately he had'nt VirtualBox, but Parallels. When Ubuntu boots it shows that the wrong screen resolution (1920x1080) has been detected,
although the Mac is only 1280x800 (poor one :)

We tried several times to adjust the resolution when an idea came to me. It is too simple to adjust the resolution inside the Ubuntu. Just open terminal and type the next commands:

sudo -i
cd /etc/X11
touch xorg.conf
nano xorg.conf

then in the simple nano editor, write (or just paste) this:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Monitor         "Configured Monitor"
        Device          "Configured Video Device"
        SubSection "Display"
          Modes "1280x800"
        EndSubSection
EndSection






then save the file using Ctrl+O, then quit Ctrl+x;
Voila - logout and login again and resolution is fixed forever;

Thanks for the great wiki here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution

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Kubuntu 12.10 beta2 is out

The Beta2 release of Kubuntu was released yesterday. The iso file is quite large - about 1GB, so you will not be able to burn it to blank CD, instead a blank DVD should be used.
My favorite way is to write it out to the USB flash dongle using simple command in konsole:

sudo dd if=kubuntu-12.10-beta2-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdc

where /dev/sdc is the device for my USB flash dongle.

The download location is here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/quantal/beta-2/

The installer went smoothly in my Virtual Box, though I noticed the window corners are a bit roughly and unpolished. Hope they will fix them, despite they were the same in 12.04.1

After installation desktop run with compositing effects already enabled. BTW Kwin is the most adwanced and smooth window manager I ever seen.

What's new? The first, of course is new newest KDE 4.9. The second is the use of LightDM - not so bad looking. I personally like it more than old KDM, which is somewhat boring.

Next big and long awaited improvement is the ability to navigate with arrow keys after searching in start menu. This feature was missed in 12.04 and now, thanks to the devs and the god, is present in the new 12.10.

Kubuntu 12.10 also sports new Gtk Configuration center for better integration with Gtk application.


It looks a bit unfinished and IMO, it is not a big deal at all. The old one worked fine too.

There is also a ton of new application from the huge SC (KDE Software collection), and most notable is the inclusion of Caligra office suite and OwnCloud client for OwnCloud 4 for opensource file sync and share solution.


I haven't tested Caligra yet, but I'm going to take a look and I'll write soon a small review for it.


Another plus (not specific to Kubuntu only) is the adoption of GCC 4.7 which is promising for better performance - in about 10-15% faster. The kernel was updated too - currently at version 3.5.


Among other cool features and improvements, there is a bug which is not fixed yet. The bug is about KWin and Chromium Browser. When clicking on browser tabbar and the window was previously maximized, the KWin assumes this action as window move and demaximize the window. Very odd.

Thats all, while waiting for the final release lately in October, I'm still running my old Kubuntu 12.04.1 with updated KDE 4.9 as I described here.

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

How to install GDM instead of LightDM in your Ubuntu

English: LightDM screenshot, using the “Unity ...
If you choose to try Gnome in your Ubuntu, or just find out LightDM is not your favorite, then you can change your login manager. Here is how:
in terminal type:
sudo apt-get install gdm

then type your password and wait for the software being installed.

After that, type
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm

and choose GDM from menu
Thats all.
For the changes to take effect, restart your computer.

If you want your LightDM back, type
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

in console again.

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Transform your Ubuntu 12.04 into modern Kubuntu

If you're dissatisfied with your Ubuntu Desktop 12.04, and wanna try something new, there is an easy way to transform it to Kubuntu with KDE 4.9 SC.

Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop-2012-06-16-02-33-35
Just open terminal and type:


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

then confirm to add this new repo to your system. After that type

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

When you are asked for login manager, I suggest you to choose KDM.

Thats all. After the installation finished, reboot your computer and choose KDE Plasma Desktop before login.
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Friday, June 29, 2012

Stable Archlinux: Stop overheating your notebook

Stable Archlinux: Stop overheating your notebook: It is getting hotter and hotter and it is necessary to find ways to stay cool in the summer heat. Especially for notebooks....

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Calise Sets The Screen Backlight Based On Ambient Brightness ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog

webupd8.org - Calise (Camera Light Sensor) is an application that uses your computer's camera as a light sensor for obtaining the ambient brightness and then calculates and sets the correct backlight according t...
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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Five reasons I would preffer KDE over Unity

English: Kubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot screensh...

As we all know, Canonical officially has stopped maintaining and funding Kubuntu.

However, this act did not stop the users get install KDE on their Ubuntu (or better, just install Kubuntu). Despite I'm usually a Unity fan, here is how I did choose to install KDE too.

1. Unity window management (eg. Compiz) is a bit slower than Kwin. There is Unity 2D which runs faster in the price of visual effects.




2. The Unity dashes thing starts very slowly for the first time, and I've used it not very often. So it is useless for me. A kind of more traditional menu (like one found in KDE) is more acceptable and usable for me.


3. When in Unity, my favourite video player VLC starts very slowly. The same is with other Qt based apps. In KDE, the Gtk is prelinked and Gtk applications start faster.

4. KDE has very strong software collection (SC) around KDE libs. Unity has not. It even use GNOME control panel and plugs a controlling/setup app into compiz settings manager for customizing things that aren't window management related like launcher icon sizes, launcher animations, launcher edge etc.

Screenshot of Kubuntu 9.10 Netbook Edition

5.  Plasma themes are more eye candy than the plain brown to black Unity. And there is a great flexibility and customizability for Plasma. Even there is a special layout for netbooks.


So, here I've described my five reasons why I have switched to KDE and why I found KDE is more reliable than Unity.
And I hope KDE has less bugs than Unity.




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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Ubuntu tool for fixing wrong F10 behavior on terminal

I used to get the terminal in my Ubuntu open all the time. There are so many things to do or manage via ter
English: Midnight Commander with default color...
English: Midnight Commander with default colors in GNOME Terminal on Ubuntu Linux. ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬: Midnight commander. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
minal rather file-manager or some application, like browsing my filesystem, editing config files etc.
And my favorite terminal based app is Midnight Commander.
Unfortunately, there is a strange behavior in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS gnome-terminal - every time I press F10 key  to quit Midnight Commander, it works like it activate right mouse button too and undesired contextual menu appears. Very nasty....

Of course there is a fix for that. And more, there is a tool for fixing that, avoiding messing up with config files and try-error-try cycle.
Here is it:
http://www.ubuntu-apps64.org/F10Fix-2
There is no need to install it. Just download, make it executable and run it. No harm at all. The bundle decompressed itself into /tmp directory and after that it deletes its temporary files by itself.


All you need is Python + Gtk bindings, I think they are installed in Ubuntu by default.
I wrote and publish this small application in hope it will be useful. Try it out and happy 'terminalling'


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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

An unofficial Gtk# 3.0 build for Ubuntu

Gtk Sharp
Gtk Sharp (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Do you know already Banshee, or Pinta, or (of course) Docky. They are all built with two superb technologies - Mono C# and Gtk binding - so called Gtk#.

Logo of Docky.
Logo of Docky. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I know there were so many disputes about Mono and it's future, but I don't care of. C# is an excellent language and thanks to Mono project it is available for Linux too.


The Gtk 3.0 port was being stuck by some bugs (scrollbars disappears) , but until half of year it is hopefully fixed. This bug probably caused Banshee to delay with it Gtk 3.0 version and have no place in official Ubuntu CD. Never mind.

Just for helping the project, and because I like Mono C# and Gtk#, I have published unofficial Gtk# 3.0 build for Ubuntu for testing purposes.
Polski: Banshee 2 w Ubuntu 11.10
Polski: Banshee 2 w Ubuntu 11.10 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is the PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~ameos/+archive/ppa


And you can add it to your Ubuntu with these commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ameos/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gtk-sharp3




Enjoy with testing.
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Monday, June 11, 2012

Ubuntu 12.04 tip: booting to text mode (run level 3) and no X

Ubuntu is usually very stable (especially 12.04 LTS) and can boots on almost every one machine. But sometimes, there are cases when video driver crashed or not detected at all, or something other happened and X fails to start. This is the time you need to boot to text mode or so called run level 3.




Here is how: (warning: non-professional skills required to boot, high level of skills required to fix the things)
Just follow the next simple instructions:
1. reboot your Ubuntu or just power-off and power-on again.


2. In your GRUB boot screen select the first option and press key 'e'. Sometimes, if you have installed Ubuntu alone, there is no GRUB boot screen because there is no boot delay. In this case, you should find the way to edit the /etc/default/grub file and apply the changes.
3. Edit the line starting with linux as shown to the picture by replacing the words quiet splash with text


4. Boot by pressing F10 key

Now your Ubuntu should boots without graphical mode (called X server) and you could enter your username and password on the login screen and start fixing the things, like installing new drivers or something else.

All pictures are grabbed from my fresh Ubuntu 12.04 install on VirtualBox.
That's all. Enjoy.

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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Meet SpeedCrunch - Qt based calculator for your needs

I'm a GNOME fan and my primary DE is GNOME or .... perhaps Unity. Recently I tried KDE on my fresh Ubuntu 12.04 and guess what... I really missed gcalc (Gnome calculator). The calculator shipped with KDE is very simple, ugly and has'nt a feature I really appreciate - complex (or not so) math expressions like that: 5 + 32*4 - 12 * (59-1/3)



But soon I found SpeedCrunch - the perfect gcalc replacement. It is very easy to use and even has a feature such a calc-as-you-type. Very convenient, eh! I was really impressed by its syntax highlighting and auto completion. Moreover, it can use variables and has Math book included - just in case you don't remember a formula.

Really cool. Too bad it is not included into Kubuntu by default.
But that is not a problem. You can always install it via command line or apper - just search for package speedcrunch.
 or
sudo apt-get install speedcrunch

The qt-apps page says there will be next version 0.11, currently at alpha

Enjoy.
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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Ubuntu performance trick for slow machines

If you have old PC/Laptop or low memory machine and want to install Ubuntu, here is how to increase overall performance. The trick is to install zRam which increase the performance by make use of more ram instead of slow swap disk .

zRam was previously called compcache and create compressed block device in RAM to avoid unnecessary disk paging. This is very useful for low-end computers or devices with flash memories.



zRam is available to install via ppa for Ubuntu 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04 LTS:
Just execute the commands in terminal:


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shnatsel/zram
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zramswap-enabler


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Thursday, May 31, 2012

How to enable appmenu support for LibreOffice 3.5.4 in Ubuntu

If you have read my previous post, you may have noticed there is no appmenu support for for LibreOffice 3.5.4 after executing my instructions.


Well, that was my mistake and here is how to fix it (I'm so sorry):

sudo apt-get install lo-menubar

That's all. Now your shiny new LibreOffice 3.5.4 should have appmenu as expected.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Install LibreOffice 3.5.4 in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

OpenOffice Logo

The new LibreOffice 3.5.4 comes with up to 100% performance improvements and is de facto the fastest free and open source office suite.



If you have Ubuntu 12.04 installed you have no chance to get this new LibreOffice version, unless you add some extra repo.
And here is how:


1. Purge previous version:
sudo apt-get purge openoffice*
or
sudo apt-get purge libreoffice*

2. Add extra repo:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
sudo apt-get update


3. Install newest version:
sudo apt-get install libreoffice language-support-en

4. Enjoy
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Friday, May 25, 2012

How to get Hibernate working on Ubuntu 12.04

Hi all, this was a post in my older blog, and I thing its place is here

When I installed Ubuntu 12.04 two days ago, I was a bit surprised to see there is no hibernate entry in Unity system menu. Hibernation is disabled by default because it is not working here and there... As most people have notebooks these days, they will prefer to hibernate their laptops over suspend.

I personally prefer both and use hibernate in most cases. So, I missed Hibernate. Here is how I get it back.