Half-Life And Counter-Strike Games Now Available Natively For Linux [Steam]

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSBEex578ODQUocvqQswGDs-3-XjmBHD7WfcLT5bcu1tjXOhgTVjicWZGVx_X4hKVCzbU6NnXdsH42m2ahyGQ-3X9Ha6SuwhwLhoFfMlZbVFQDeudKsONFQtYNnGDDga9P6qLzOy1q1KE/s1600/counter-strike-linux.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="counter strike linux" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSBEex578ODQUocvqQswGDs-3-XjmBHD7WfcLT5bcu1tjXOhgTVjicWZGVx_X4hKVCzbU6NnXdsH42m2ahyGQ-3X9Ha6SuwhwLhoFfMlZbVFQDeudKsONFQtYNnGDDga9P6qLzOy1q1KE/s320/counter-strike-linux.png" title="counter strike linux" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Valve has released the original <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/70/">Half Life</a> 1 and <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/10/">Counter Strike</a> 1.6 games for Linux (and OS X). </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Both Half Life and Counter Strike are currently in beta and even though Linux is not yet displayed as a supported platform for these two games, you can download, install and play them on Linux, using the native Steam for Linux beta client.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1pTONNWxCr2UfHnfYnG8lbnygtQwF0XTKcWSduWpYsY-TrPKl3Ja-FdadPcU8JkVIfKgwTGrBdSeLy2AS78Kc3K_mSIJH5_82KNX-IlTFrrSWz80tm-7gDiCtazSTHg68vfXDJkuYHXA/s1600/steam-counter-strike-hl.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1pTONNWxCr2UfHnfYnG8lbnygtQwF0XTKcWSduWpYsY-TrPKl3Ja-FdadPcU8JkVIfKgwTGrBdSeLy2AS78Kc3K_mSIJH5_82KNX-IlTFrrSWz80tm-7gDiCtazSTHg68vfXDJkuYHXA/s320/steam-counter-strike-hl.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Half-Life and Counter-Strike are first-person shooter games developed by Valve and Counter-Strike actually has its origins in a Half-Life modification. You can find out more on Wikipedia: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_%28video_game%29">Half-Life</a> | <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike">Counter-Strike</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The games can be installed directly through the Steam for Linux client but remember not to select "Linux" when searching for them because they only show up for Windows right now. <br /><br />In my short test, both games seem to work ok. However, Half-Life and Counter Strike for Linux are currently in beta so you may encounter issues or they might not work at all for you!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also see: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/12/steam-for-linux-now-available-to-all.html">Steam For Linux Now Available To All Users</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>more info @ Steam Linux Beta Access <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/games/221410/announcements">announcements</a>. </i></div>

Half-Life And Counter-Strike Games Now Available Natively For Linux [Steam]

Valve has released the original Half Life 1 and Counter Strike 1.6 games for Linux (and OS X). Both Half Life and Counter Strike are curre...

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Eclipse IDE: Get Ubuntu AppMenu And HUD Support

<div style="text-align: justify;">By default, the popular Eclipse IDE does not support the Ubuntu AppMenu or  <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/hud-ubuntus-new-smart-menus-announced.html">HUD</a>. The reason for this is that Eclipse has been <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libdbusmenu/+bug/618587">blacklisted</a> so it wouldn't use the AppMenu around the time of Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat because it didn't work back then.<br /><br />Now Eclipse does work with the AppMenu, however, there are some minor glitches like some menu shortcuts not being displayed (although they do work). If this isn't a problem for you, <b>here's a quick way to whitelist Eclipse so it can make use of Ubuntu's Appmenu and HUD</b>.</div><br />Below you can see Eclipse IDE with global menu and HUD support running in Ubuntu 13.04:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLWPSmXaqlE2lNYaH5iH-AVggDDxKakrhr4yxuwai-J7adgG_UdglNralEke8LbP7mazXLQnzUa8SyaKpjwo3KvV9Eed39VehZae6gleLhIIekTrROOGUoOu4Wclwesbvr1VparIeQlN8/s1600/eclipse-ide-global-menu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLWPSmXaqlE2lNYaH5iH-AVggDDxKakrhr4yxuwai-J7adgG_UdglNralEke8LbP7mazXLQnzUa8SyaKpjwo3KvV9Eed39VehZae6gleLhIIekTrROOGUoOu4Wclwesbvr1VparIeQlN8/s320/eclipse-ide-global-menu.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqbw7RfWB_I76GHu4Rtb5yJ440vUUgtsWSaZrHLG5EkMq5UhLUPCYCzNgqoVFrNEi0-SyaoeumcO2dOTNIRQZsbpInGfnXo1R9QWoyDUvizRtDqJtnBxQ87X1rOIflKdvCZGxR-witX1_K/s1600/eclipse-ide-hud-ubuntu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqbw7RfWB_I76GHu4Rtb5yJ440vUUgtsWSaZrHLG5EkMq5UhLUPCYCzNgqoVFrNEi0-SyaoeumcO2dOTNIRQZsbpInGfnXo1R9QWoyDUvizRtDqJtnBxQ87X1rOIflKdvCZGxR-witX1_K/s320/eclipse-ide-hud-ubuntu.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name="more"></a><br /><h2>HUD and AppMenu support for Eclipse IDE in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The ideal solution would be to rebuilt AppMenu from source with Eclipse whitelisted by default, but since that's considered complicated by most users, here's an easier solution.<br /><br /><b>The instructions below should work with any Ubuntu version. </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1.</b> To get <b>Ubuntu AppMenu </b><b>(global menu) and HUD support for Eclipse IDE,</b> we'll have to whitelist it so we'll hve to modify the GTK2 libappmenu.so file. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To find out the exact GTK2 libappmenu.so path (the path can vary depending on the Ubuntu version you're using and architecture), firstly run the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo updatedb</code></pre><br />Once it finishes (there's no output so just wait until it's done), let's find the GTK2 libappmenu.so path by using the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>locate "gtk-2.0/2.10.0/menuproxies/libappmenu.so"</code></pre>The above command should return the exact GTK2 libappmenu.so path.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> Let's make a <b>backup</b> before proceeding, so using the path returned by the command above, run the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo cp <b>/path/to/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/menuproxies/</b>libappmenu.so <b>/path/to/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/menuproxies</b>/libappmenu.so.bak</code></pre><br /><b>3. Now let's whielist Eclipse so it supports AppMenu and HUD:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo sed -i 's/Eclipse/Xclipse/g' <b>/path/to/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/menuproxies/</b>libappmenu.so</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For the last to commands above, remember to use the exact path to the GtK2 libappmenu.so you've found under step 1!</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Alternatively, you can also use <a href="https://launchpad.net/~absinthesyringe/+archive/eclipse">a PPA</a> which comes with a package that basically  runs all these commands automatically but: the PPA may give you the wrong impression that if you remove the package, everything is reverted and in fact it's not; also, </i><i>you'll still have to reinstall the package if Appmenu Gtk2 is updated (so by the way, you'll have to follow these instructions again if that package is updated); and finally, </i><i>the PPA package doesn't work correctly for Ubuntu 12.04. That's why I've preferred the manual instructions over the PPA.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>That's it! Now restart Eclipse IDE and it should now support the Ubuntu appmenu (global menu) and HUD.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: if the AppMenu package is updated, you'll have to reinstall the "eclipse-enable.appmenu" package.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If later on you want to disable appmenu / HUD support for Eclipse IDE</b> (undo the changes), simply follow the first step above to find out the GTK2 libappmenu.so path and restore the backup we've made under step 2 using this command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo cp <b>/path/to/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/menuproxies/</b>libappmenu.so.bak <b>/path/to/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/menuproxies/</b>libappmenu.so</code></pre><br />And then, restart Eclipse IDE.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>solution via Launchpad <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libdbusmenu/+bug/618587">bug report</a> (thanks to Vasile Rotaru)</i></div>

Eclipse IDE: Get Ubuntu AppMenu And HUD Support

By default, the popular Eclipse IDE does not support the Ubuntu AppMenu or  HUD . The reason for this is that Eclipse has been blacklisted ...

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uGet Download Manager 1.10.3 Gets New Icon, Mirrors Support

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjissNCCgQrJ6_bqCBKrjgeeYPFvEwuWZizqU4c2qeRM0o79ZtmFAmS08MiPuZ_LWu_6BEFF9jRjpY2R4w7A9ytuK7U4UY7p4syTLtkLYpOm4Qg9X22Mf9K-V8JlfkS-rCdXybDpp0HdrnH/s1600/uget-download-manager.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="uget download manager" border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjissNCCgQrJ6_bqCBKrjgeeYPFvEwuWZizqU4c2qeRM0o79ZtmFAmS08MiPuZ_LWu_6BEFF9jRjpY2R4w7A9ytuK7U4UY7p4syTLtkLYpOm4Qg9X22Mf9K-V8JlfkS-rCdXybDpp0HdrnH/s320/uget-download-manager.png" title="uget download manager" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://uget.visuex.com/">uGet</a> 1.10.3 has been released today with a new application icon, support for mirrors and more.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">uGet is a GTK3 download manager that can make use of <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2009/10/aria2-cross-platform-command-line-tool.html">aria2</a> (a command line download accelerator also used by <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/10/speed-up-apt-get-downloads-with-apt.html">apt-fast</a>) to accelerate downloads, and comes with features such as: clipboard monitoring, scheduler, resume downloads, batch downloads, supports multiple protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent or Metalink - these last 2 require the aria2 plugin), HTML and TXT file importing, proxy support, cookie and user agent control and much more. </div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">For a complete list of features, see the uGet <a href="http://uget.visuex.com/features">features page</a>.</div><br /><br /><b>Changes in the latest uGet 1.10.3:</b><br /><ul><li>added new download option - "mirrors";</li><li>changed hotkey, Shift+Delete to delete data, Ctrl+Delete to delete file and data;</li><li>changed logo and icons;</li><li>rearranged menu items;</li><li>added & updated translation files.</li></ul><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtNWObv9ns-FiTv-a4O50HAgzdvZ8WMwnc_8Le018NzyRt3RbIVAeMge21NpxjmhG5eZWmsTj4F4-xPA8N9vUI12jEx2_QDMIQS-0ggw4BXgS_oicpyS7xcZUUluf7ta1KPEIWHD_np_Pt/s1600/uget-mirros.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="uget mirrors" border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtNWObv9ns-FiTv-a4O50HAgzdvZ8WMwnc_8Le018NzyRt3RbIVAeMge21NpxjmhG5eZWmsTj4F4-xPA8N9vUI12jEx2_QDMIQS-0ggw4BXgS_oicpyS7xcZUUluf7ta1KPEIWHD_np_Pt/s320/uget-mirros.png" title="uget mirrors" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><h2>Install uGet download manager in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Compared to the version available in the Ubuntu repositories (1.8.x), the version available in the uGet PPA has many extra features and bug fixes as well as GTK3  and appindicator support, so I highly recommend using the official uGet stable PPA.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To add the uGet stable PPA and install uGet and aria2 in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin and 12.10 Quantal Quetzal (there are no Ubuntu 13.04 packages yet), use the following commands in a terminal:</b></div><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:plushuang-tw/uget-stable<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install uget aria2</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To enable the aria2 plugin, select <i>Edit > Settings</i> from the uGet menu and on the "Plug-in" tab, check the box for "Enable aria2 plugin". Then, when adding a new download, you'll be able to set uGet to use multiple connections per server from the "New download" dialog box.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tip: like I was saying above, if you install uGet from its official PPA, you'll notice that it uses an Ubuntu AppIndicator by default but if you don't want this - for instance if you're using GNOME Shell -, you can disable it so uGet uses a tray icon, by using the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sed -i "s/AppIndicator value='1'/AppIndicator value='0'/g" ~/.config/uGet/Setting.xml</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For other Linux distributions (source files and RPM available) and Windows, see the uGet <a href="http://uget.visuex.com/downloads">downloads page</a>.</b></div>

uGet Download Manager 1.10.3 Gets New Icon, Mirrors Support

uGet 1.10.3 has been released today with a new application icon, support for mirrors and more. uGet is a GTK3 download manager that can mak...

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Elegant Image Viewer `Photo` Sees New Release

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>"<a href="http://qt-apps.org/content/show.php?content=147453">Photo</a>", a fancy Qt image viewer, has been updated recently with new features some of you have requested, such as a slideshow, new settings and others.</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXyhXllhumfXGggqOdyMXmL-ZtAE_CfbDEotc7CD0dlh1g5RMGGQSX7bZOoc9cigSPQ-OXVpx_jxNenZM_lEUA_iamLXStp3J4MB4f4RN6Men0KaYTNVGzLg8Khrud6HYBNDtuqZd7fCCo/s1600/photo-application.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="photo image viewer" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXyhXllhumfXGggqOdyMXmL-ZtAE_CfbDEotc7CD0dlh1g5RMGGQSX7bZOoc9cigSPQ-OXVpx_jxNenZM_lEUA_iamLXStp3J4MB4f4RN6Men0KaYTNVGzLg8Khrud6HYBNDtuqZd7fCCo/s320/photo-application.png" title="photo image viewer" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Photo is an image viewer in which the image is displayed in full-screen with a configurable, semi-transparent overlay behind the photo if it doesn't cover the whole screen. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The application also features image thumbnails on the bottom, which are set to autohide in the new version, but you can set them to always be visible from the settings. The menu is also hidden by default and to access it, you must point the mouse to the top right edge of the screen.  </div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">`Photo` isn't just elegant, it's also highly customizable and a great way to view a large number of images.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpfj1PcC_lPjv80Dex6kLSDMx4T4AUIXQChxSfNKM8JL6rS3s2Tz26doHKo0q7HKgFIkyRcHNXsGubk6Wh9S47qxF0YfG1lz4CfK6mii2cwaQ7GyFCqayrTJ97JOLQbY_nFKPXxrGAwBu3/s1600/photo-app_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpfj1PcC_lPjv80Dex6kLSDMx4T4AUIXQChxSfNKM8JL6rS3s2Tz26doHKo0q7HKgFIkyRcHNXsGubk6Wh9S47qxF0YfG1lz4CfK6mii2cwaQ7GyFCqayrTJ97JOLQbY_nFKPXxrGAwBu3/s320/photo-app_2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest<b> Photo 0.9</b>, released a few days ago (well, two versions were released, one being a minor bug-fix release) comes with a <b>completely re-written and re-structured code</b>, a <b>new look</b> for various parts of the application, implements a<b> slideshow</b> feature as well as:</div><ul><li>faster startup;</li><li>better shortcut handling;</li><li>better exif handling;</li><li>improved thumbnail implementation;</li><li>lots of new settings, including customizable context menu (by default it uses KDE apps such as Dolphin, but you can change that from the settings window - "Other Settings" tab);</li><li>better image handling;</li><li>new command line options;</li><li>many bug fixes.</li></ul><br /><br /><h2>Install Photo image viewer in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To install Photo image viewer in Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.10 or 12.04 use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:samrog131/ppa<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install photoqt</code></pre><br />Arch Linux users can install the latest Photo image viewer via <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/photo/">AUR</a>. <br /><br />For other Linux distributions, see the Photo <a href="http://photoqt.org/down">downloads page</a>.

Elegant Image Viewer `Photo` Sees New Release

" Photo ", a fancy Qt image viewer, has been updated recently with new features some of you have requested, such as a slideshow, n...

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Ubuntu Might Become A Rolling Release Distribution Between LTS Releases

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="ubuntu logo" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDbhYL5DUqpi_cRWoRVihiVCmbUQd1lbwzxP0hRKFNIfNqzRkThQqGQsTqYT39qaOeaQqb0klAxg2kCII_Rb2_Co9O0k7ud-ifKzUfE91V31k-uDm5Bn6SB0rYrg6Tnic-COfapmYTxXDh/s200/ubuntu-logo.png" /></div><br /><b>Ubuntu may become a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_release">rolling release</a> distribution, but keeping LTS (Long Term Release) releases every two years.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Leann Ogasawara, Canonical Kernel Team Manager has said in a recent Google+ hangout that it has been discussed to use a rolling release model between LTS releases. This is just a discussion for now, but it could become a reality starting with Ubuntu 14.04:</div><br /><a name="more"></a><blockquote>The plan was by 14.04 to target what we're calling a rolling release and go from a LTS to LTS only model and eliminate these intermediate releases. That was being discussed earlier, we didn't set anything in stone but that's still in the cards as a possibility of happening when we hit the next 14.04 release so <b>it could go from 14.04 to 16.04 and everything in between is what they consider a rolling release</b> [...], following the latest package releases, not only for the Kernel but for the entire distribution [...].<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">- Leann Ogasawara (approximate quote from the video)</div></blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If this becomes reality, I'm sure a lot of users will be very happy because they'd get the latest updates for all packages (and new packages would be available a lot quicker) without having to upgrade to a newer Ubuntu release. This might have an impact on stability, but some users already consider non-LTS releases to be "glorified betas" so at least this way Ubuntu users would get the latest updates in exchange for the stability offered by a LTS.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Besides possible stability, there's another downside which Canonical takes into consideration: a lot of hype is generated and many users get excited for each Ubuntu release, but using a rolling release model between LTS releases would mean there would be 3 less Ubuntu releases for every 2 years and thus, Ubuntu users would be less enthusiastic.<br /><br />These and probably many other factors count towards taking a decision, but the most important one should be: "will this make Ubuntu users happy?". So, what do you think, would you like Ubuntu to use a rolling release model between LTS releases?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Below you can watch the full Google+ hangout video with Leann Ogasawara (video embedded from the minute where Leann begins to talk about the rolling release model):</div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AQvOIExkCaw?start=2513&end=3649" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQvOIExkCaw#t=41m53s">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>seen on <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/ubuntu-considers-huge-change-that-would-end-traditional-release-cycle/">ArsTechnica</a></i></div>

Ubuntu Might Become A Rolling Release Distribution Between LTS Releases

Ubuntu may become a rolling release distribution, but keeping LTS (Long Term Release) releases every two years. Leann Ogasawara, Canonical ...

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Unity Reboot (Launcher To Quickly Reboot In A Different OS) Updated For Ubuntu 12.10 And 13.04

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Today I've updated <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/09/unity-reboot-ubuntu-unity-launcher-to.html">Unity Reboot</a> to work with the latest GRUB 2.0 available in Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Unity Reboot is a custom Unity launcher that can be used to quickly reboot into a different OS / Linux distribution, useful for those who dual boot (or triple boot </b>or... it should work with any number of operating systems, including Windows, various Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora, etc.). This isn't just for Unity and <b>it should also work with docks that support Unity quicklists</b>, like DockBarX, Cairo Dock or Plank.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's a screenshot with Unity Reboot in Ubuntu 12.10 on a system on which I triple boot: Ubuntu 12.10, Fedora 18 and Windows 7 (in VirtualBox, set up just for testing this):</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZNqjGGwBAaDCuCG27yprZaAcPajmmEPWL_9z46WsyFvyCPoFYMIPVCFXSe-sAriM_MkRfNTNCzagtUX9EjlDbeYgIgRNowYkD3Ec3ZGUpSIaWY0AOdhhYDIms-HRZjNjjSSbxp3qKfhyE/s1600/unity-reboot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity reboot ubuntu fedora windows 7" border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZNqjGGwBAaDCuCG27yprZaAcPajmmEPWL_9z46WsyFvyCPoFYMIPVCFXSe-sAriM_MkRfNTNCzagtUX9EjlDbeYgIgRNowYkD3Ec3ZGUpSIaWY0AOdhhYDIms-HRZjNjjSSbxp3qKfhyE/s320/unity-reboot.png" title="unity reboot ubuntu fedora windows 7" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">This is how it works: selecting an entry from the quicklist, the system will reboot and that entry will be selected in the GRUB menu. That means you can still boot to a different OS if you change your mind. You can set the GRUB menu timeout to 0 and you won't see the GRUB menu and instead, the system will directly reboot into the selected OS. This only applies for that system restart (so only one time) and after that, the first boot entry should be selected, like it is with the default GRUB settings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The GRUB menu has changed starting with Ubuntu 12.10 and the various options for an OS (like old kernels for Ubuntu) are displayed in a sub menu which isn't displayed by default, so I've had to tweak Unity Reboot to work with this new GRUB 2 menu. <b>The new version also uses pkexec</b> (so you'll get a nice password prompt in GNOME Shell for instance) <b>instead of gksu for the reboot command.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>You can select to reboot without having to enter your pasword</b>, by right clicking the Unity Reboot launcher icon and selecting <i>Settings > Don't ask for password on restart</i> (for the settings, gksu is still used and not pkexec).</div><br /><br /><b>Important notes:</b><br /><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">clicking the icon on the Unity launcher doesn't do anything (a notification will be displayed if you left click it). All the functionality is in the quicklists so you need to right click the icon and select an an item. Your computer will then reboot and automatically select the item you've clicked in the GRUB menu;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Unity Reboot only works if Ubuntu (the installation on which you're using Unity Reboot) has been installed after the other operating systems. So for example, if you triple boot Windows 7, Ubuntu 12.10 and Fedora 18, Unity Reboot will only work if Ubuntu 12.10 was the last you've installed from these 3 (basically, it needs to run on the Linux distribution that has installed GRUB).</li></ul><br /><br /><h2>Install Unity Reboot in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1. Unity Reboot is available in the main WebUpd8 PPA. To add the PPA and install it, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install unity-reboot</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest Unity Reboot 0.2 is only available for Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04, but an older version is also available in the same PPA for Ubuntu 12.04, 11.10 or 11.04.</div><br />If you want to get the code and tweak it to your needs, you can get it via <a href="https://github.com/hotice/unity-reboot">GitHub</a> (it uses simple bash scripts and <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2010/12/yad-zenity-on-steroids-display.html">YAD</a> for the settings dialog).<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> After the installation has finished, run the following command in a terminal to initialize Unity Reboot (this is only required once):</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>unity-reboot</code></pre><br />Don't worry, this command won't reboot your system.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3.</b> Now you need to add the Unity Reboot launcher icon on the Unity Launcher (or a dock that supports Unity quicklists). To do this, open Nautilus, press CTRL + L (so you can type the location), enter "<i>~/.local/share/applications</i>" without the quotes in the Nautilus location entry (or manually navigate to "<i>~/.local/share/applications</i>") and drag and drop the "<i>Reboot in...</i>" icon to the Unity launcher / dock.</div><br />Now right click it to see the available options:<br /><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Clicking an OS entry in the launcher will reboot into that OS, after you enter your password;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">In the settings, you can set Unity Reboot not to ask for a password when rebooting in a different OS. Warning: if you disable the password prompt, the system will reboot as soon as you select an OS from the quicklist, without any confirmation dialog.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I've tested Unity Reboot on my laptop on which I dual boot Ubuntu 13.04 and 12.10 as well as in VirtualBox with triple boot: Windows 7, Ubuntu 12.10 and Fedora 18. If you encounter bugs, please post them in the comments below. </div>

Unity Reboot (Launcher To Quickly Reboot In A Different OS) Updated For Ubuntu 12.10 And 13.04

Today I've updated Unity Reboot to work with the latest GRUB 2.0 available in Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04. Unity Reboot is a custom Unity la...

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Unity Revamped PPA Is Back For Ubuntu 12.04 (Unity Launcher Dodge, Minimize On Click Features)

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/05/how-to-get-dodge-windows-and-minimize.html">Unity Revamped PPA</a> is back for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS</b>. This is a PPA that comes with a <b>custom Unity build that brings back the old "Dodge windows" and "Dodge active window" Launcher hide behaviour</b> as well as a feature that many have requested: <b>minimize / restore windows by clicking on their icon in the Unity Launcher</b>.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3k4hVSokJj5z55PfcJFrvF8g0zy9MLLYQTE7UJshDIineHoHUFDL1PzdjrNpGKGXrn84iEj1CFkpGglq1U-fpQaxHjEGxcOx7NNF8W37JTLhLMpTNs9l8mqqw5ccm_z_ZmEqEj8exB_6/s1600/unity-revamped.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity dodge windows revamped" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3k4hVSokJj5z55PfcJFrvF8g0zy9MLLYQTE7UJshDIineHoHUFDL1PzdjrNpGKGXrn84iEj1CFkpGglq1U-fpQaxHjEGxcOx7NNF8W37JTLhLMpTNs9l8mqqw5ccm_z_ZmEqEj8exB_6/s320/unity-revamped.png" title="unity dodge windows revamped" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name="more"></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, there are some issues with the patches for the latest Unity available in Ubuntu 12.10 (6.x) , but at least the PPA now works again with Ubuntu 12.04 (Unity 5.18, available in the official Ubuntu 12.04 Updates repository).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the extra features that used to be in the Unity package available in the Unity Revamped PPA isn't available with this update unfortunately, or at least I couldn't find it in my test: the option to disable global menu autohide in CCSM. But the window dodge and minimize on Unity icon click features work great.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Below you can watch a video I've recorded a while back, demoing Unity with the dodge windows and minimize / restore on click features in Ubuntu 12.04:</b></div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Q2rj18H0M38" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2rj18H0M38">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><br /><h2>Get "Dodge windows", "Dodge active window" and minimize on click for Unity in Ubuntu 12.04</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To add the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~ikarosdev/+archive/unity-revamped">Unity Revamped PPA</a> and upgrade Unity to the custom build available in this PPA (for Ubuntu 12.04 only!), use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ikarosdev/unity-revamped<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get upgrade</code></pre><b>Then, log out and log back in.</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Now try to minimize an open window by clicking its icon on the Unity launcher - this should now work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To get the "Dodge windows" or "Dodge active window" Unity launcher behaviour, install CompizConfig Settings Manager:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, launch CompizConfig Settings Manager from Dash, click the Unity plugin and on the "Behaviour" tab, under "Hide Launcher", select "Dodge windows" or "Dodge active window".</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Revert to the original Unity packages</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you want to revert the changes and go back to the original Unity packages from the Ubuntu repositories, use the following commands:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install ppa-purge<br />sudo ppa-purge ppa:ikarosdev/unity-revamped</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Thanks to Isaac Joseph for his work on the Unity Revamped PPA!</i></div>

Unity Revamped PPA Is Back For Ubuntu 12.04 (Unity Launcher Dodge, Minimize On Click Features)

The Unity Revamped PPA is back for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS . This is a PPA that comes with a custom Unity build that brings back the old "Dod...

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