Ubuntu

Ubuntu bits and bobs:

remove specific screensavers from Random

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in order to change the su password:

sudo su passwd

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To install the Compiz window manager under Ubuntu 9.04:

Go to System > Preferences > Appearance, on the Visual Effects tab and click on "Extra". You may be prompted to install restricted drivers and if so, click yes, if not: you will have wobbly windows and a few other effects enabled. Drag a window and see if it's wobbly :)

2. Then we need to install CompizConfig Settings Manager. To do so, open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

3. Then, go to System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager (or type in a terminal: ccsm) and enable "Desktop Cube", and "Rotate Cube". You can of course alter their settings as you wish (set images for the cube faces, cube caps and so on), and also you may enable other effects if you like. Then you need to go to General Options, on the last tab "Desktop Size", set the "Horizontal Virtual Size" to 4. And now you have a spinning cube. To trigger it, press Ctrl + Alt + LeftClick and drag to spin it. You may also use: Ctrl + Alt + LeftArrow/RightArrow to go to previous desktop / next desktop or Ctrl + Alt + DownArrow to unfold it and then LeftArrow/RightArrow to move around the unfolded cube. Now go back to CompizConfig Settings Manager and try out some other cool effects.

NB Click on Desktop Cube and under the tab appearance enable the dkydome and choose an image for the background.

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First, if you didn't enabled Compiz (point 1. from above), this won't work!

2. Make sure you have the universe repository enabled and then open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator awn-manager libawn awn-applets-c-core awn-applets-c-extras awn-applets-python-core awn-applets-python-extras

3. After installing, go to System > Preferences > AWN Manager, on the "General" tab and set it the way you want it to be (you don't need skins because you can set it all manually, although you can google for AWN Themes) for instance: on the "Bar Appearance", set the Look to 3D, set it's height, angle and so on the way you like it, then on the Applets tab on the left you enable which applets you want to show up on your dock. Then hit: Alt + F2 and type:

avant-window-navigator

The dock should now appear.

4. To make AWN start whenever your computer starts (Startup), go to System > Preferences > Sessions, click "Add" and in the name field type:

Avant-Window-Navigator

and in the command field:

avant-window-navigator

There you go, now you have Compiz enabled, cool desktop cube, AWN dock and you learned how to enable apps to start when you power-up your computer.

from http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/03/compiz-how-to-get-cube-and-mac-like.html

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In order to install Beryl (the desktop manager) on a machine with an ATI Radeon card[1]

NB the Laptop R250 gfx card has too little memory to run Beryl in resolutions over 1024x1024 so you have to scale the resolution down to run Beryl, as it runs natively at 1400x1200.

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To install VMware from source (NB After the installer fails, you install the vmware-any-any patch, then you go to /usr/local/src/vmware-server-distrib/bin and run vmware-config.pl) [2]

This is another howto [3]

These are the serial numbers:

9092W-Y06FF-2213H-4T4V9

9290R-YAPDU-28111-4VQ0W

9ATAR-Y8LFU-22M9M-4LL8H

9AT2W-YA7DC-2A491-4JNH1

9AE0T-YAQ4F-22J9N-4VP95

98DAX-Y86DC-22530-4LJUE

92XAW-Y824C-2AM10-4T008

90E2X-Y826G-20011-4VMLJ

92D89-Y0QFG-2A11N-4J5CH

92W2X-Y036A-2813N-4VHC8

(NB when running vmware it gave me shit about libpng, so I removed /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.0/ and it stopped giving me shit.

Then you can get around to putting your current Windows install into your VMware on Ubuntu [4]

This is a very useful configuration guide for the VMware virtual machine, if you want to virtualise an allready installed OS (especially the bit about the windows XP boot disk image, which stops you from having to go through Grub - use F2 in the vmware loading screen to change the boot order so that the CD starts up first) NB note that even though the SCSI driver gives an error, you still need it installed for when you start up windows using the VMware hardware profile in the virtual machine. [5]

This guy has another way to convert a current machine to a virtual machine on another PC [6]

NB to addd the VMware tools you first have to cancel all the hardware warnings and then use VMware server to install the tools (under the VM tab).

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In order to change desktop effects you do

alt-f2 (run), desktop-effects

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In order to mount a windows ntfs partition read/write use this link [7]