Ubuntu Alternate CDs Could Be Dropped For 12.10

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yvDZsgrJaXs0W2wZaBZ4aDLQOvdG_zbcQ-Lv8GN3TS5yTlqX8LXXd5N3dB-Qjc08GX1BLcinR7SiVO-P0PqxAVC098uL8IcJPjCpqVn98WSvF3Ht7MiETfn9qODhMGgXAiDQ0wB2wNN-/s1600/ubuntu-alternate-cd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yvDZsgrJaXs0W2wZaBZ4aDLQOvdG_zbcQ-Lv8GN3TS5yTlqX8LXXd5N3dB-Qjc08GX1BLcinR7SiVO-P0PqxAVC098uL8IcJPjCpqVn98WSvF3Ht7MiETfn9qODhMGgXAiDQ0wB2wNN-/s320/ubuntu-alternate-cd.png" title="ubuntu alternate cd installer" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Steve Langasek, Ubuntu release manager, has proposed on the Ubuntu-devel mailing list to drop the alternate CDs for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal. </b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><i>The alternate CD is a text-mode installer that comes with various advanced options like RAID setup, LVM, install LTSP Server and so on.</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Steve Langasek, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal will be getting support for LVM, cryptsetup and RAID to Ubiquity, however, there won't be any RAID support in Ubiquity for this Ubuntu release, but you'll be able to set up RAID post-install or by using the netboot or server CDs:</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">As part of ongoing efforts to reduce the number of images we ship for Ubuntu, and to make the desktop image more useful in a variety of scenarios, Dmitrijs Ledkovs has been hard at work in quantal adding support for LVM, cryptsetup, and RAID to ubiquity. [...] It [dropping the alternate CDs] lets us tighten our focus on making the desktop CD shine: fewer images to QA, fewer different paths to get right (like the CD apt upgrader case) means more time to focus on the things that matter.</blockquote><br />More information on this can be found on the <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2012-August/035675.html">Ubuntu-devel</a> mailing list.

Ubuntu Alternate CDs Could Be Dropped For 12.10

Steve Langasek, Ubuntu release manager, has proposed on the Ubuntu-devel mailing list to drop the alternate CDs for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Que...

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Install PowerTOP 2.1 In Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin Via PPA

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1kSDwmTI4icFT2v89RTlMpL-ObVEs16b-BhnJB0fj1jYG0iQBh0SDn2SLu_tXopTsD-5oZAnPdVwzhT_IW32VOJO_ulfZcwgv2rJYg4_CFxLh7QMh2gid9z4KfnVsgj26Qx3HycvOOBu/s1600/powertop-overview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="powertop" border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1kSDwmTI4icFT2v89RTlMpL-ObVEs16b-BhnJB0fj1jYG0iQBh0SDn2SLu_tXopTsD-5oZAnPdVwzhT_IW32VOJO_ulfZcwgv2rJYg4_CFxLh7QMh2gid9z4KfnVsgj26Qx3HycvOOBu/s320/powertop-overview.png" title="powertop" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://01.org/powertop/">PowerTOP</a> is a command line tool that helps diagnose issues with power consumption and provides suggestions on how to improve power usage.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">PowerTOP 2.1, released a few days ago, introduces support for Intel GPUs and for cores without P-states, a new manual page along with an option to specify workload to run during measurement and an option to suppress output to the terminal.</div><br /><br /><h2>Install PowerTOP 2.1 in Ubuntu 12.04 via PPA</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest PowerTOP 2.1 is available in the Ubuntu 12.10 official repositories, and for Ubuntu 12.04 in the main WebUpd8 PPA. Add the PPA and install PowerTOP 2.1 using the following commands:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install powertop</code></pre><br />The latest PowerTOP 2.1 source can be downloaded from <a href="https://01.org/powertop/">HERE</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Usage</h2><br />To use PowerTOP, you need to run it as root:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo powertop</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">PowerTOP doesn't just diagnose power consumption issues, but it can also provide solutions. On the Tunables tab, you can see what you can do to save some power:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihIlPZjwevRXmOfx7n3e7ejAJ44Hux_clvvEPxiOZqR58h2xVUjFzgZMddj9yRj8OTPJKQicPCcp1_tK-ih-85XOltAzkuis4MdFroL7fxwTEAPUrk7obkvi3AUxx_bvyjF9I0996TN9QM/s1600/powertop-tunables.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="powertop" border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihIlPZjwevRXmOfx7n3e7ejAJ44Hux_clvvEPxiOZqR58h2xVUjFzgZMddj9yRj8OTPJKQicPCcp1_tK-ih-85XOltAzkuis4MdFroL7fxwTEAPUrk7obkvi3AUxx_bvyjF9I0996TN9QM/s320/powertop-tunables.png" title="powertop" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">However, most of the settings are not saved and they are lost after a reboot. You, can, however, make them permanent, by using the commands provided in the PowerTOP html report. To generate an HTML report, run the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo powertop --html=powertop.html</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This will generate an HTML page which you can open in your web browser:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIr2L9HyHDmm73zs1Tfg7vPSfX4uafjscB33cVt08LGtrI1H4ajzPGXzI3c0r_NdTm1M5Z3PnAcz2aoeW2JPtrH22ASnYCjiXuSR_Sc0cGEFBrc2vPa70Vdu53TmjqYVobY7BGV-37i8So/s1600/powertop-html.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="powertop html" border="0" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIr2L9HyHDmm73zs1Tfg7vPSfX4uafjscB33cVt08LGtrI1H4ajzPGXzI3c0r_NdTm1M5Z3PnAcz2aoeW2JPtrH22ASnYCjiXuSR_Sc0cGEFBrc2vPa70Vdu53TmjqYVobY7BGV-37i8So/s320/powertop-html.png" title="powertop html" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here, you can see various information related to power usage as well as a "Tuning" tab where the settings that need tuning are displayed, along with the commands required to apply them. Add these commands to the <i>/etc/rc.local</i> file to make them permanent.</div>

Install PowerTOP 2.1 In Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin Via PPA

PowerTOP is a command line tool that helps diagnose issues with power consumption and provides suggestions on how to improve power usage. P...

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Audio Tag Editor `Puddletag` 1.0.0 Stable Released

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlnF_YTMFFY8h02w6iTCrhcRdp-c-MHzb3PEysoGoibCYxL1kK4vch9cZFNTkhDlNC1rQtXWEYiWt87DHKsFdxGMLxFHIA-VkVJ_WqdaQF_-wX2mbh3WMzbMrAoSaYSCoTWKMdS4vKMDI/s1600/puddletag.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="puddletag" border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlnF_YTMFFY8h02w6iTCrhcRdp-c-MHzb3PEysoGoibCYxL1kK4vch9cZFNTkhDlNC1rQtXWEYiWt87DHKsFdxGMLxFHIA-VkVJ_WqdaQF_-wX2mbh3WMzbMrAoSaYSCoTWKMdS4vKMDI/s320/puddletag.png" title="puddletag" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://puddletag.sourceforge.net/">Puddletag</a> is an awesome <a href="http://www.mp3tag.de/en/">Mp3tag</a>-like audio tag editor for Linux which uses a spreadsheet layout so the tags are always visible, making it easy to edit them.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The application comes with a highly customizable interface and supports mass tagging and most features that should exist in an audio tag editor like extracting tag information from filenames, ranaming files based on their tags, along with some other cool features like support for downloading cover art via Amazon or retrieving tags from Discogs, FreeDB or MusicBrainz.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>After 8 months of work, Puddletag 1.0.0 stable has been released today. Here are the major changes included in the latest Puddletag 1.0.0: </b></div><ul><li>AcoustID support: AcoustID is a music fingerprinting service that works by calculating a unique fingerprint for your audio files and trying to match it to data in the AcoustID database. This allows you to find information for tracks that have no metadata. To be able to use this, you'll need libchromaprint-tools and libchromaprint0 - in Ubuntu, install them using "sudo apt-get install libchromaprint-tools libchromaprint0"</li><li>Mp3tag tag sources are fully supported</li><li>Massively updated parser</li><li>Fixed Amazon tag source as now requires AssociateTag to do lookups.</li><li>Improved mass tagging</li><li>Support for MusicBrainz's and Discogs's new API</li><li>$regex function added.</li><li>Updated icon</li><li>ID3v2.3 frames are written in same order as Mp3tag's.</li><li>VA album lookups for Discogs.</li><li>And many bug fixes</li></ul><br />For how to use Puddletag, visit its <a href="http://puddletag.sourceforge.net/docs.html">online documentation</a> (includes some tutorials too).<br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Puddletag in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To add the WebUpd8 Puddletag PPA and install the latest Puddletag 1.0 in Ubuntu Quantal, Precise, Oneiric, Natty, Maverick or Lucid, use the following commands (the package is also available in the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~nilarimogard/+archive/webupd8">main WebUpd8 PPA</a>):</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/puddletag<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install puddletag</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For other Linux distributions (there are also .deb files available for download if you don't want to use our PPA), get Puddletag via <a href="http://puddletag.sourceforge.net/download.html">SourceForge</a>.</div>

Audio Tag Editor `Puddletag` 1.0.0 Stable Released

Puddletag is an awesome Mp3tag -like audio tag editor for Linux which uses a spreadsheet layout so the tags are always visible, making it e...

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gThumb 3.0.2 Available For Ubuntu 12.04 And 11.10 (PPA)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7sf6nGT3r1NJvao4NTozPyajGPJTtg-UIpx_gekqD9PfzBzwgFMhoxt-90gHzqu4CtkvgROcPACtN9w65HicYcq05BDEsPQB_69evsq90fpbxifrjEYKhwdSHlV3pW8rFn8uFKvavI_wp/s1600/gthumb-3.0.2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="gthumb 3.0.2" border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7sf6nGT3r1NJvao4NTozPyajGPJTtg-UIpx_gekqD9PfzBzwgFMhoxt-90gHzqu4CtkvgROcPACtN9w65HicYcq05BDEsPQB_69evsq90fpbxifrjEYKhwdSHlV3pW8rFn8uFKvavI_wp/s320/gthumb-3.0.2.png" title="gthumb 3.0.2" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://live.gnome.org/gthumb">gThumb</a> is an image organizer/viewer that can export images to PicasaWeb, Facebook, Flickr or Photobucket, comes with some basic image editing features such as cropping, resizing, rotation, image enhancing, has video support, can import images from digital camera and many other cool features.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>gThumb 3.0.2, which has been released yesterday fixes some annoying bugs, like the broken video thumbnails</b>.</div><br /><b>Other fixes included in gThumb 3.0.2:</b><br /><ul><li>Fixed fullscreen toolbars with multiple monitors</li><li>Fixed error when rotating keeping the original size</li><li>Photobucket exporter: fixed crash when closing the dialog</li><li>Delete key does nothing when image first opened</li><li>Picasa Web exporter: images not displayed in the export dialog</li><li>Fix parallel build problems with enum generation</li></ul><br /><br /><h2>Install gThumb 3.0.2 in Ubuntu 12.04 or 11.10</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ubuntu 12.04 repositories provide gThumb 2.14.3 while the Ubuntu 11.10 repositories have gThumb 2.13.1, but you can upgrade to the latest gThumb 3.0.2 which uses GTK3 in Ubuntu 12.04 or 11.10 using the gThumb WebUpd8 PPA (packages also available in the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~nilarimogard/+archive/webupd8">main WebUpd8 PPA</a>):</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gthumb<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install gthumb</code></pre>

gThumb 3.0.2 Available For Ubuntu 12.04 And 11.10 (PPA)

gThumb is an image organizer/viewer that can export images to PicasaWeb, Facebook, Flickr or Photobucket, comes with some basic image editi...

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Greybird, The Default Xubuntu Theme Gets A Complete Makeover For Xubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKKPCREOGC0UqgF8jxsdsUCOwB0PxaUr8s9P5-5OFLC34iIVY25b9qVdCmZ1NuhH-jGJwFvQjTSLJrjqPotLHV6SzUAhBEx0Fn5aQhFtJ70-wgA6Tb0aHKZevqrAXqyn0YOMHmTupxpAaB/s1600/greybird-xfce-12.10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="greybird xubuntu 12.10 quantal quetzal" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKKPCREOGC0UqgF8jxsdsUCOwB0PxaUr8s9P5-5OFLC34iIVY25b9qVdCmZ1NuhH-jGJwFvQjTSLJrjqPotLHV6SzUAhBEx0Fn5aQhFtJ70-wgA6Tb0aHKZevqrAXqyn0YOMHmTupxpAaB/s320/greybird-xfce-12.10.png" title="greybird xubuntu 12.10 quantal quetzal" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b>Greybird, the default Xubuntu theme, has got a complete makeover for Xubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, thanks to the great work of <a href="http://satya164.deviantart.com/">Satya</a> and Simon from the <a href="http://shimmerproject.org/">Shimmer project</a>.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The theme doesn't use the Unico GTK3 engine anymore and the GTK3 port has been completely rewritten. Greybird includes:</div><ul><li>GTK2 theme</li><li>GTK3 theme</li><li>Xfwm4 themes (normal and compact)</li><li>xfce-notifyd theme</li><li>Emerald theme</li><li>Metacity theme</li><li>Mutter theme</li><li>Unity support</li><li>Granite widgets support (for compatibility with elementary apps)</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This means <b>Greybird isn't just for Xubuntu (XFCE), but it works with Unity or GNOME Shell/classic too</b>:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7k0WTvUJ24DpBzGQ-7p3yJhAk_A83OGiaqnJkn55mc8xSgVE9gFWftHo8g3p1rmgkceyqmKCAUmuB5ql6bvMMNFz0wjFi0JypbX7mxKK06FFBum-3zEd5-scIfHcYs57Lp_w89C4OjIRJ/s1600/graybird-twf.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="greybird gtk3 theme" border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7k0WTvUJ24DpBzGQ-7p3yJhAk_A83OGiaqnJkn55mc8xSgVE9gFWftHo8g3p1rmgkceyqmKCAUmuB5ql6bvMMNFz0wjFi0JypbX7mxKK06FFBum-3zEd5-scIfHcYs57Lp_w89C4OjIRJ/s320/graybird-twf.png" title="greybird gtk3 theme" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp3qzhZnCDKZAW7CYr_ooj0QpRljM60iHtKLyjIQ0659H9I3N81lz1tJJsckcNDt6T9T1602emiyuyZ227Yap4v7L_YFfLFQoip-V-W87s0efwbG3CdlqAMAc5RvEsomC7lebD5r1EKTMM/s1600/graybird-unity.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="greybird gtk3 theme" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp3qzhZnCDKZAW7CYr_ooj0QpRljM60iHtKLyjIQ0659H9I3N81lz1tJJsckcNDt6T9T1602emiyuyZ227Yap4v7L_YFfLFQoip-V-W87s0efwbG3CdlqAMAc5RvEsomC7lebD5r1EKTMM/s320/graybird-unity.png" title="greybird gtk3 theme" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfz84IFHYFVVzny6M1b2PQMKPhEqlEPNJprXuPfiMKffvjBF8Turqf8KfAOdwytRkTec8UT8uy-1ZQQCOFOnaXJLjEwBLqVu8ZpTYVtToIq-PwISMzwrOXFAuhz50fmUJII4_Narl-gXb/s1600/greybird-gnome-shell.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="greybird gtk3 theme" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfz84IFHYFVVzny6M1b2PQMKPhEqlEPNJprXuPfiMKffvjBF8Turqf8KfAOdwytRkTec8UT8uy-1ZQQCOFOnaXJLjEwBLqVu8ZpTYVtToIq-PwISMzwrOXFAuhz50fmUJII4_Narl-gXb/s320/greybird-gnome-shell.png" title="greybird gtk3 theme" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><br /><h2>Install Greybird in Ubuntu / Xubuntu 12.04</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The theme is available in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal repositories in the "shimmer-themes" package, but Ubuntu / Xubuntu 12.04 users can already install it by using the Shimmer PPA:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shimmerproject/ppa<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install shimmer-themes-greybird</code></pre><br /><b>For other Linux distributions, you can get Greybird from <a href="https://github.com/shimmerproject/Greybird">GitHub</a> or <a href="http://satya164.deviantart.com/art/Greybird-GTK3-Theme-322365199">DeviantArt</a>.</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once installed, select "greybird-git" (not Greybird!) from the XFCE settings to apply the theme. In Ubuntu (Unity / GNOME 3), use GNOME Tweak Tool, <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/03/unsettings-tool-to-disable-global-menu.html">Unsettings</a>, <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/02/myunity-30-released-with-new-gui.html">MyUnity</a> or <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/ubuntu-tweak-073-adds-support-for-linux.html">Ubuntu Tweak</a> and select "greybird-git" as the GTK3 and window theme.</div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Thanks to Satya for the tip!</i></div>

Greybird, The Default Xubuntu Theme Gets A Complete Makeover For Xubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal

Greybird, the default Xubuntu theme, has got a complete makeover for Xubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, thanks to the great work of Satya and S...

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Get HDMI Working With Nvidia Optimus On Ubuntu By Using Bumblebee And Synergy

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>HDMI doesn't work with Optimus hybrid graphics chipsets under Linux for most laptops, even if you use Bumblebee, but there is a way to get HDMI to work: by using a separate session.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Using the instructions below, you'll get an LXDE session (you can use XFCE or others, but the instructions below are for LXDE) to show up on the external monitor (which is connected via HDMI), and in this session, all the applications you launch use your laptop's Nvidia graphics card and you can play games, watch movies, etc. The LXDE session runs in the same time as your regular session, so on your laptop's screen you get your regular (main) session. Also, the mouse and keyboard are shared between the two sessions / monitors.</div><br />Here's how this looks like:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIhMFoyqJ4HOIo9ekkhWWhkZnxZx6Kqbe79OMRc51FDX1FzxQ7U_XJFA9-4AvYcJoSEBxx8IYN2GQK6VORmzOKPoUHneEYjQabfNovttvx24RlVE3RdT8NMLo2GI2iujlHIcQV6DHsFb67/s1600/dell-xps.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIhMFoyqJ4HOIo9ekkhWWhkZnxZx6Kqbe79OMRc51FDX1FzxQ7U_XJFA9-4AvYcJoSEBxx8IYN2GQK6VORmzOKPoUHneEYjQabfNovttvx24RlVE3RdT8NMLo2GI2iujlHIcQV6DHsFb67/s320/dell-xps.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhuSF1IFoGJIBYnPYbe02WfSXVRgq7-3Hy-V7Lmj9JetTP8u7y6Xw6FpJOkavi79N0kxrLT_XYHXits3kU6j31Q7qlx6cmw_CquMMxv5cvnx2L94_vnSSYzq-iU1JtyNKMXNavFrM24HIq/s1600/lxde-hdmi.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhuSF1IFoGJIBYnPYbe02WfSXVRgq7-3Hy-V7Lmj9JetTP8u7y6Xw6FpJOkavi79N0kxrLT_XYHXits3kU6j31Q7qlx6cmw_CquMMxv5cvnx2L94_vnSSYzq-iU1JtyNKMXNavFrM24HIq/s320/lxde-hdmi.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The first image above is from my laptop's screen (Dell XPS L702X which comes with Nvidia Optimus) while the second image is the separate LXDE session which is also running on my laptop, but is displayed on a TV connected via HDMI. As you can see, the first one is using the Intel graphics chip while the second one uses Nvidia.</div><br /><br />However, there are some things to consider when using this:<br /><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">the sound won't work (if you know a way to get it to work, please let us know in the comments!) through HDMI so you'll only get sound through your laptop's speakers</li><li style="text-align: justify;">you can't move a window from your current desktop to the monitor connected via HDMI. The only way to run applications on the device connected via HDMI is to either run it from its session menu, or by using "export DISPLAY=:8.0" (see the end of the post for more info on this). The mouse is however, shared between the two desktops.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">when loading the extra session, you may get double indicators / tray icons on your current (main) session. There is a way around this though (see the "tips" section at the end of the post)</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><h2>Get HDMI to work with laptops using the Optimus technology under Ubuntu using Bumblebee and Synergy</h2><br /><b>1.</b> <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee">Install Bumblebee</a> if you haven't already.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> Unity doesn't work with Bumblebee (and I'm not sure if you can run two sessions using the same window manager without them interfering anyway), so you'll need to use a different desktop environment / session, like LXDE, XFCE and so on - use whatever you want. I've used LXDE so using the instructions below, you'll get an LXDE session on the monitor connected via HDMI.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To get the mouse and keyboard working on the external monitor connected via HDMI we'll use Synergy, a tool that lets you share the mouse and keyboard between multiple computers.</div><br /><b>Let's install the required packages (LXDE and Synergy):</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install synergy lxde lxde-common</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3.</b> To be able to use Synergy, you'll need to create a configuration file. You can download mine from <a href="http://webupd8.googlecode.com/files/synergy.conf">HERE</a> - copy the file to your home folder and rename it to ".synergy.conf" (notice the dot in front of the filename - that makes the file become hidden).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The file I've provided above should be enough, but if you want to change it, you can read about the Synergy configuration file <a href="http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/configuration.html">here</a>.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>4.</b> To start LXDE on the external monitor connected via HDMI, you can use a script which you can download from <a href="http://webupd8.googlecode.com/files/hdmi-0.1.tar.gz">HERE</a>. Extract the archive, copy the "hdmi" script to your home folder and make it executable using the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>chmod +x ~/hdmi</code></pre><br />Now, to run the script, use the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>~/hdmi</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">LXDE should now start on the external monitor connected via HDMI. Give it some time (around 10 seconds) and moving your mouse to the left of your screen should make it show up on the HDMI device.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's what the script does (this is just an explaination, you don't need to run these commands, just use the above script):</div><br />- exports the display to the one we're going to use for the HDMI monitor (8):<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>export DISPLAY=:8.0</code></pre><br />- runs LXDE with optirun (Bumblebee):<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>optirun startlxde &</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">- runs the Synergy server in the foreground on the main display (on your laptop's main session) with 127.0.0.1 as the address: </div><pre class="linux-code"><code>synergys -f -a 127.0.0.1 --display :0 -n ubuntu &</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">- runs the Synergy client in the foreground on the HDMI display and it connects it to the 127.0.0.1 server address:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>synergyc -f -n hdmi --display :8 127.0.0.1 &</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And finally, it exports the display back to your laptop's (main) display:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>export DISPLAY=:0.0</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The script also uses some "sleep" commands which add a delay to make sure the commands have enough time to get executed before running the next command.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Tips</h2><br /><b>Launching applications:</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To launch an application on the monitor connected via HDMI, you can use the LXDE menu on the external monitor or use the following command on your main session:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>export DISPLAY=:8.0 APPLICATION</code></pre>where "APPLICATION" is the executable name for the app you want to launch.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Optionally, you can also run "export DISPLAY=:8.0" in a terminal window on your main session, and then all the applications you launch from that terminal window should show up on the external monitor.</div><br /><br /><b>Configuring your Nvidia graphics card:</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Using the above instructions to launch applications on the external monitor, you can launch "nvidia-settings" (if you're using the proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers):</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>export DISPLAY=:8.0 nvidia-settings</code></pre><div style="text-align: justify;">Launching this on your laptop session displays an error message saying that you're not using Nvidia drivers, but launching in on the HDMI-connected device (which uses Bumblebee with "optirun"), you can configure various Nvidia settings: the screen resolution, etc.</div><br /><br /><b>Fixing double autostart applications / tray icons:</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To avoid getting double indicators (two network indicators, etc.) in your regular session when launching the extra LXDE session, you can make all autostart applications / applets to not load in our LXDE session, using the following commands:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>for f in /etc/xdg/autostart/*; do if [[ ! `grep "NotShowIn=LXDE" $f` ]]; then echo "NotShowIn=LXDE;" | sudo tee -a $f; fi; done<br />for f in ~/.config/autostart/*; do if [[ ! `grep "NotShowIn=LXDE" $f` ]]; then echo "NotShowIn=LXDE;" | tee -a $f; fi; done</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">You can also do this manually, by going to <i>/etc/xdg/autostart</i> and <i>~/.config/autostart</i> and adding "NotShowIn=LXDE;" (without the quotes) to each .desktop file corresponding to the application(s) you don't want to start in LXDE. More about using NotShowIn and OnlyShowIn, <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/make-applications-autostart-only-in.html" title="Make Applications Autostart Only In A Certain Environment (GNOME, Unity, KDE, Etc.)">HERE</a>.</div><br /><br />References:<br /><ul><li><a href="https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/issues/75#issuecomment-2797298">https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/issues/75#issuecomment-2797298</a></li><li><a href="http://itviking.net/blog/m11xr3-bumblebee-and-the-dual-screen-setup">http://itviking.net/blog/m11xr3-bumblebee-and-the-dual-screen-setup</a></li></ul>

Get HDMI Working With Nvidia Optimus On Ubuntu By Using Bumblebee And Synergy

HDMI doesn't work with Optimus hybrid graphics chipsets under Linux for most laptops, even if you use Bumblebee, but there is a way to g...

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Unity: Dash Gets A Cool New Previews Feature [Video] - Ubuntu 12.10 Development

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZO40igSSiwOpvhzPPa6BV31l2OnZ8bYCe0LnLONyHJpmmUtlDq9bsPY3KxY0A6oL_kgQocoZWELCWkDCfMSe4CtK0pHgjJIR8hDffj4eU44Uwa-3Y9ozo4kk1atHOlM9fYM-2v84OC32/s1600/rhythmbox-previews-dash.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="rhythmbox previews unity dash" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZO40igSSiwOpvhzPPa6BV31l2OnZ8bYCe0LnLONyHJpmmUtlDq9bsPY3KxY0A6oL_kgQocoZWELCWkDCfMSe4CtK0pHgjJIR8hDffj4eU44Uwa-3Y9ozo4kk1atHOlM9fYM-2v84OC32/s320/rhythmbox-previews-dash.png" title="rhythmbox previews unity dash" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b>A cool new feature has landed in the Unity Staging PPA, for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal: previews in Dash.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>With the new "previews" feature, you'll be able to right click applications or files in Dash to get a preview, along with some extra information which depends on the item you've right clicked.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">For instance, right clicking an application displays a screenshot as well as user ratings, its description and so on. If the application is not installed, there's also a button to install it directly from Dash, without using Ubuntu Software Center or, if it's installed, you can launch or uninstall it:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKlaog1OC83F58yYrQJyWgl4wsnLYiPounspgtnUhJTIfy-_h-1flBPsYa3yHd7B7Ih8Lxq40LGaeO83wUzBZXSD0bHT0CDlRlRc8iU-v2UenhLt_WQPK8boW6qBsQGvJpSi3M3t6OJrpA/s1600/thunderbird.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu quantal: unity lens dash previews" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKlaog1OC83F58yYrQJyWgl4wsnLYiPounspgtnUhJTIfy-_h-1flBPsYa3yHd7B7Ih8Lxq40LGaeO83wUzBZXSD0bHT0CDlRlRc8iU-v2UenhLt_WQPK8boW6qBsQGvJpSi3M3t6OJrpA/s320/thunderbird.png" title="ubuntu quantal: unity lens dash previews" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you right click a music file or album from the music lens, you get a large album cover image as well as the available tracks and options to play it or show the files in folder:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-vagg1LiM5t8f4rN5VBYoLfPD0joiSs8_QFRd7aLxiWTelBse5kqtfXkk4xoP7_rZqwEwvKA4V3MsssKkDQqfgLWExTZPrpE54K4FgHMPib-tg966ncNvwQskR3GDl_l9-F6JNrIdYrxQ/s1600/music.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu quantal: unity lens dash previews" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-vagg1LiM5t8f4rN5VBYoLfPD0joiSs8_QFRd7aLxiWTelBse5kqtfXkk4xoP7_rZqwEwvKA4V3MsssKkDQqfgLWExTZPrpE54K4FgHMPib-tg966ncNvwQskR3GDl_l9-F6JNrIdYrxQ/s320/music.png" title="ubuntu quantal: unity lens dash previews" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In my test, using the latest Unity from the Unity Staging PPA, the music starts playing in Rhythmbox and not in Dash, but hopefully users will be able to play the music directly in Dash, or at least preview it.</div><br /><br /><h2>Video: Unity with the new "previews" Dash feature</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's a video I've recorded using the latest Unity from trunk with the new "previews" feature:</div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WC2f_Xy_g5s" width="420"></iframe><br />(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC2f_Xy_g5s">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Important:</b> "previews" hasn't landed in Ubuntu 12.10 yet and is currently under heavy development, so in the video you'll notice many bugs and as well as things that will change until the final Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal is released. In the video you'll also notice that the Unity launcher icons use a background for running applications only - I'm not sure if this is a bug or an intentional change.</div><br /><br /><b>Currently, the previews work for:</b><br /><ul><li>applications (both installed and suggested)</li><li>music (installed and available for download via Ubuntu One Music Store)</li><li>videos</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The previews don't work for regular files or folders, but hopefully this will change soon. And not just for the default lenses, I'm sure we'll see some great new Unity lenses created for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal that will make use of this cool new feature, so you'll be able to read the latest news for instance, from Dash, without having to open a browser.</div><br /><br /><h2>Install Unity with Previews</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The new "previews" feature hasn't landed in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal yet, but it will probably be available very soon. Until then, if you want to test it, you can use the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~unity-team/+archive/staging">Unity Staging PPA</a> in a virtual machine for instance (do not use it on a production machine, the builds in this PPA are highly unstable!).</div><br /><i>The <a href="https://launchpad.net/~unity-team/+archive/staging">Unity Staging PPA</a> contains the latest Unity builds generated from trunk, that have passed the unit tests, but didn't pass the user acceptance (autopilot) tests yet. Only use it for testing only!</i><br /><br />

Unity: Dash Gets A Cool New Previews Feature [Video] - Ubuntu 12.10 Development

A cool new feature has landed in the Unity Staging PPA, for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal: previews in Dash. With the new "previews...

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