Xubuntu Blog

Howto: Access GetDeb.net packages through Apt-get/Synaptic

Ok, so it’s not really Xubuntu-related, but it is something that I think will be helpful to a lot of people. If you’re a GetDeb.net user, you can use this tip to sync your GetDeb packages with the update manager and Synaptic.

As of July 26, 2008, this repository is unusable. You can still add it correctly to your /etc/apt/sources.list, but any updates from their repository will fail to download. You will have to continue using the main getdeb.net website until further notice. Sorry for the inconvience.

WARNING: This repo seems to update to the latest Ubuntu version at random times. Currently it is supported for Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. If you use any other version, you will have package conflicts. This repo also does not have an authentication key. You’ve been warned.

1) Open up a terminal (Xfce Menu > Terminal) and run the following:

gksudo mousepad /etc/apt/sources.list

2) Put in the following on a new line at the end of the file:

deb http://ubuntu.org.ua/ getdeb/

Save the file and exit.

3) Now run the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

If all works well, you should get updates for the programs you downloaded through GetDeb.net, and be able to install GetDeb.net programs through the Synaptic package manager.

From my experience, the site has occasional downtime. If running sudo apt-get update gives you 404 Errors relating to http://ubuntu.org.ua/, don’t panic. Simply be patient and try rerunning sudo apt-get update later in the day.

Enjoy!

Howto: Better integrate Firefox with dark themes

Here’s the problem: in some themes (in my case, Murrina Aero) the menubar has a dark background. In other programs, the text of the menubar is white. In Firefox, however, it’s gray and unreadable. Here’s a quick fix to make the menus easier to read:

1) Open up Firefox, and type about:config in the address bar. Once loaded, right click and go to New > String. When asked to type in the preference name, type in ui.menutext. Hit OK. Now type in #ffffff.

Restart Firefox. The menu will be easier to read, but now we’ve run into another problem: your submenus and right-click menus have also turned white, and they’re unreadable. Fear not, there’s a fix for this too:

2) Go to Xfce Menu > File Manager (Thunar). Once there, click View > Show Hidden Files. Then navigate to .mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/. (Note: xxxxxxxx changes for each system. For instance, mine is x3s7t788.)

3) Now go to the chrome folder. Under there is a file called userChrome.css. Open it up and paste in the following at the end of the file:

menupopup > menu, popup, menuitem {
color: black !important;
}

Save the file and exit.

4) Restart Firefox. Now your menu bar will be readable, as well as the submenus.

Known bugs:

This still doesn’t affect the right-click menu of about:config. No big problem, though, since any configuration you do in there can also be placed in .mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/prefs.js.

Special thanks to this guide on creating Office XP style menus for Firefox 2 for helping how to figure this out.

Enjoy!
Special thanks to the

Howto: USP setup + tips and tricks

As everyone knows, Xubuntu’s start menu is…lacking, to say the least. With this howto, you can get a menu that is comparable to KDE’s Kicker or GNOME’s Slab.

The program I will be using is called Ubuntu System Panel, which describes itself as a “Simple launcher for the GNOME desktop, providing easy access to Places, Applications and common configuration items for your computer”. Even though it is designed for GNOME, it can be easily set up for XFCE. Let’s get started!

1) First, open up a terminal and install what is needed to get USP running on Xubuntu:

sudo apt-get install subversion xfce4-xfapplet-plugin python-gnome2 python-gnome2-desktop python-gmenu python-pyinotify gnome-menus

2) Make a folder, and call it usp-svn:

mkdir usp-svn/

3) Go into that folder, and download USP:

cd usp-svn/
svn checkout http://ubuntu-system-panel.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ ubuntu-system-panel

4) Now let’s install USP:

cd ubuntu-system-panel
./usp_update install

5) Now, we need to create a .usp folder in your home folder BEFORE running USP. To do that, run:

mkdir ~/.usp

If you plan to use the Places plugin, you should also run:

mkdir ~/.usp/places
touch ~/.usp/places/.gtk-bookmarks

6) Right-click the Xubuntu panel, and click “Add New Item”. Add the XfApplet plugin.
Afterwards, a window should pop up and give you the choice to add the Ubuntu System Panel. Make sure that you add it. USP will now appear in the panel.

Config:

To configure USP, run

uspconfig

a configuration window will pop up. Even though everything is GNOME-oriented, these tips will make it fit better in Xubuntu:

Under “Main”:

• Change “USP Button Icon” to xubuntu-logo
• Make sure “Hide Side Pane”, “Hide Stickied Headings”, and “Hide Border” are checked.
• If you’d like to set the Windows key to open up the menu, set “USP Hotkey” to Super_L.
• To make it look nicer on lower resolutions, reduce the number of number of plugins that are loaded. I have mine reduced to “applications”, “newpane”, “uspuser”, and “system_management”.

  To remove any plugins you don’t want, select it and click “Remove”. When you’re done, click “Save”.

Under “Applications”:

• Make sure “Hide Vertical Separator” is checked. Set “Applications Width” to 200 and “Applications Height” to 270.
• To enable searching, install Catfish, a GTK file searcher. It is in Feisty’s universe repo and can be installed as such:

  sudo apt-get install catfish

  Afterwards, change “Search Command” to

  catfish SEARCH_STRING

Under “User”:

• Set “User Height” to 90 and “User Width” to 60. I also have “Hide User Name” and “Hide Logged On Date” checked, these are optional.

Under “System Management”:

• Make sure “Hide Vertical Separator” is checked. Set “System Management Height” to 160 and “System Management Width” to 100.
• Set “Install software” to gksu /usr/sbin/synaptic, “Control Center” to xfce-setting-show, “Lock Screen” to xflock4 and “Quit” to xfce4-session-logout.

You can also create your own set of shortcuts. To do so, go to “All Applications” under the “Applications” category, right click the shortcut you want and click “Add to Favorites”.

The end result should be something like this:

Feel free to make any changes as you see fit…but make sure to press the “Backup” button beforehand in case anything goes wrong.

Happy USPing!

Howto: Backport the latest usplash to Dapper

If you’re interested in putting the latest and greatest usplash on Xubuntu Dapper, you can. Here’s how:

1) Get the needed development packages:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get build-dep usplash xubuntu-artwork

2) Get Edgy’s source packages (not binary), and download them:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy main restricted universe multiverse' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-get update
apt-get source usplash xubuntu-artwork

3) Begin to build the packages for usplash:

cd usplash-0.4
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

4) Install them:

cd ..
sudo dpkg -i usplash*.deb

5) Begin to build the packages for Xubuntu’s usplash:

cd xubuntu-artwork-0.11
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

6) Install these too:

cd ..
sudo dpkg -i xubuntu-artwork-usplash*.deb

Enjoy! You’ll want to remove the line
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy main restricted universe multiverse
from /etc/apt/sources.list, or you’ll have problems compiling packages.

(Credit goes to jamadagni at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=264883.)