Ubuntu Multi-Monitor Tweaks (Full Screen Flash Fixes, Span Wallpaper Across Monitors, More)

<b>If you are using a multi-monitor setup in Ubuntu, here are a few tips which should help you fix some annoyances, like:</b><br /><ul><li>get full screen flash videos to be displayed on any monitor</li><li>get flash videos to remain full screen while working in the other desktop</li><li>a tweak to move windows to a different display using keyboard shortcuts</li><li>how to extend the wallpaper across monitors or use a different wallpaper for each monitor</li></ul><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><h2>Move window to a specific display using a keyboard shortcut</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu (with Compiz/Unity) lets you move a window to a specific virtual desktop using keyboard shortcuts, but by default, this doesn't work if you want to move a window to a specific monitor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is, however, an easy way of easily <b>moving windows to a specific display using keyboard shortcuts</b> so here's what you must do.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Firstly, install CCSM and Compiz Plugins if they are not already installed:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then open CompizConfig Settings Manager, search for the "Put" plugin (it's under Window Management) and enable it. Then, click the plugin so we can change some of its settings.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5LHmz912r94/UHco0UAWBpI/AAAAAAAAKrQ/CoLtqKFWrN0/s1600/ccsm-put.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ccsm put plugin" border="0" height="183" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5LHmz912r94/UHco0UAWBpI/AAAAAAAAKrQ/CoLtqKFWrN0/s320/ccsm-put.png" title="ccsm put plugin" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">On the "Bindings" tab, click on "Disabled" next to the "<b>Put to Next Output</b>" keyboard shortcut, check the "Enabled" box and then assign it a key combination that's not already in use. I've used Ctrl + Tab (click on "Grab key combination" to set a keyboard shortcut). Then click 'ok' and you're done.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, focus a window and press the keyboard combination you've used above: the window should move to the other workspace. If you only have two monitors, this should be enough, as it moves any window from one monitor to the other. If you have more than 2 monitors, you can assign keyboard shortcuts for "Viewport Left" and "Viewport Right" and so on, under "Put to adjacent viewport".<br /><br /><b>Tip: </b>you can also use the default "Put pointer" keyboard shortcut: "Super + z", which moves the window to the exact pointer position on either of the screens.</div><br /><br /><br /><h3>Get full screen flash videos to work on any monitor</h3><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In some cases (or maybe always?), <b>full screen Flash videos show up on the primary monitor, even if you've clicked the full screen button while using some other monitor.</b> <b>The above solution works with these full screen Adobe Flash videos too</b>: click a video, then press the key combination you've set up and the video should move to the other display.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So there you have it, now you can move the full screen flash videos on any monitor you want.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Get Flash videos to remain full screen when working (clicking) in the other desktop</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The above solution fixes full screen Flash video showing up on the wrong display, but there's another annoying issue with Flash: <b>if you're watching a full screen video on one monitor and want to work on another monitor, the flash video exists full screen</b>. Basically, unless the full-screen flash video is focused, it exists full-screen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>There are some fixes and workarounds for this full screen Flash exiting when it's unfocused too: </b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1.</b> The first one is using an extension which resizes Flash videos to fill the whole browser window and you can then set the browser to full screen by pressing <b>F11</b> or selecting <i>View > Full screen</i>:</div><ul><li>for <b>Google Chrome / Chromium</b>: <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/maximizeflash/lljjmflmcnaigbhnheldbdbplkbhngnl">MaximizeFlash</a></li><li>for<b> Firefox</b>: <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flash-game-maximizer">Flash Game Maximizer</a> (the button to resize video to fit the whole browser window is on the addon bar so to show it, select <i>View > Toolbars > Addon Bar</i>). This extension doesn't work properly with YouTube though but you can set YouTube to use HTML5 by going to <a href="http://youtube.com/html5">http://youtube.com/html5</a></li></ul><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AHHg1q4lL3A/UHcv-G0iGdI/AAAAAAAAKs8/ScKKOAiMsm8/s1600/firefox-addon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="firefox flash full window" border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AHHg1q4lL3A/UHcv-G0iGdI/AAAAAAAAKs8/ScKKOAiMsm8/s320/firefox-addon.png" title="firefox flash full window" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After getting the video to fill the whole browser window, hit F11 or select View > Full screen</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> Below is another solution for this issue, that fixes Adobe Flash for any browser, except Google Chrome.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reason flash videos exit full screen when clicking anywhere on the other monitor is because that's the behaviour wanted by Adobe. Adobe Flash is not open source, but we can still modify its code using a tools such as GHex. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To install GHex in Ubuntu, use the following command:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install ghex</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Now, find out where your Flash plugin is installed using the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo updatedb<br />locate libflashplayer.so</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The "locate" command above should return the full path to libflashplayer.so. Copy it because you'll need it for the next command:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>gksu ghex <b>/path/to/</b>libflashplayer.so</code></pre><br />Where "/path/to/" is the path to libflashplayer.so you've copied above (usually it should be <i>/usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so</i> or <i> /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so</i>)<br /><br /><br />Now, <b>editing a binary with GHex is tricky, so read everything carefully. </b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once GHex opens the libflashplayer.so file using the command above, select <i>Edit > Find</i>, and in the right square, type (don't paste!) "<b>_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW</b>" without the quotes, then click find:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UVjHW_0TQpU/UHcpmQyW8gI/AAAAAAAAKrY/op-clPnmDSE/s1600/ghex-search.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ghex" border="0" height="217" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UVjHW_0TQpU/UHcpmQyW8gI/AAAAAAAAKrY/op-clPnmDSE/s320/ghex-search.png" title="ghex" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">On the right GHex pane, click one letter from "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW", let's say the first "N" and enter some other letter, let's say "A". Do not press the backspace key or anything, to replace a letter, simply click it, then press the letter you want to replace it with! Do not modify anything else! </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R8ix71jMWT0/UHcpzYIBCRI/AAAAAAAAKrg/CROVLKMBhHI/s1600/ghex-replace.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ghex" border="0" height="208" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R8ix71jMWT0/UHcpzYIBCRI/AAAAAAAAKrg/CROVLKMBhHI/s320/ghex-replace.png" title="ghex" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once you've made this change, from the GHex menu select <i>File > Save</i> and <b>restart your browser</b>. <b>You will have to follow these steps again if you update Adobe Flash Player!</b></div><br /><br />If later on you want to revert this change, reinstall Flash Player plugin:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install --reinstall flashplugin-installer</code></pre><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: Google Chrome (does not apply to Chromium) uses its own Adobe Flash Player plugin which doesn't have "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW", so if you want this fix to work with Google Chrome, enter "chrome://plugins/" in the url bar, then click "Details" on the right, scroll to the Adobe Flash Player plugin and 2 versions should be listed:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YG01DDIsPtM/UHcqAy8xRLI/AAAAAAAAKro/HxfJcIAKOdY/s1600/google-chrome-disable-pepper-flash.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="google chrome disable pepper flash" border="0" height="224" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YG01DDIsPtM/UHcqAy8xRLI/AAAAAAAAKro/HxfJcIAKOdY/s320/google-chrome-disable-pepper-flash.png" title="google chrome disable pepper flash" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here, disable the one that has "/opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so" as its path. Doing this, Google Chrome will use the system Adobe Flash Player and not the built-in Google Chrome Adobe Flash Player.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Extend wallpaper across monitors or use a different wallpaper for each monitor</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The default Ubuntu Appearance settings doesn't let you span a single large wallpaper across both monitors or use a different wallpaper for each monitor, but there are two applications that you can use to do this.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1.</b> The first one is <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/02/syncwall-wallpaper-changer-with-multi.html">SyncWall</a>. Install it in Ubuntu 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 syncwall</code></pre><br />To set SyncWall to span a wallpaper across all your monitors, select <i>Preferences > Display Parameters</i> and under Multi Monitor Display, select "Extend image (one file for all monitors)":<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AdyQY7NtuzM/UHcrAtvjsOI/AAAAAAAAKrw/DrCLmOT6NJo/s1600/syncwall.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="syncwall" border="0" height="224" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AdyQY7NtuzM/UHcrAtvjsOI/AAAAAAAAKrw/DrCLmOT6NJo/s320/syncwall.png" title="syncwall" width="320" /></a></div><br />Here's how my desktops looks like after using SyncWall:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JxJ6kUyYejI/UHcrGM1x4VI/AAAAAAAAKr4/tVQ62expLpA/s1600/wallpaper-fill-both-monitors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JxJ6kUyYejI/UHcrGM1x4VI/AAAAAAAAKr4/tVQ62expLpA/s400/wallpaper-fill-both-monitors.png" /></a></div><br />SyncWall can also rotate wallpapers, apply effects and more.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> Another such tool is <b>Nitrogen</b>, which <b>besides being able to set the same wallpaper to extend across displays, it can also be used to set a different wallpaper to each monitor.</b> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nitrogen is available in the official Ubuntu repositories so to install it, search for it in Ubuntu Software Center or use the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install nitrogen</code></pre>Nitrogen doesn't have a desktop file, so run it from the command line:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>nitrogen</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In it's Preferences, add your wallpaper folder, then at the bottom, select "Full Screen" to stretch the same wallpaper across monitors or select Screen 1, 2, etc., to set a different wallpaper for each monitor:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dpRQbCxE5ws/UHcrLyiE0tI/AAAAAAAAKsA/9eSnqJ-ySHE/s1600/nitrogen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="nitrogen wallpaper changer" border="0" height="229" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dpRQbCxE5ws/UHcrLyiE0tI/AAAAAAAAKsA/9eSnqJ-ySHE/s320/nitrogen.png" title="nitrogen wallpaper changer" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To be able to set a different wallpaper for each monitor, you must disable the file manager from handling the desktop. This means you'll no longer have folders on the desktop. </div><br />In GNOME / Unity, install GNOME Tweak Tool:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then open GNOME Tweak Tool and on the "Desktop" section, set "Have file manager handle the desktop" to OFF.<br /><br />And finally, to have the wallpapers restored each time you log in, add "nitrogen --restore" to your startup applications.</div><br />Here's how my desktop looks like with different wallpapers for each monitor:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NpQ9lPkA98E/UHcr87gXQ4I/AAAAAAAAKsM/_DLgc2OGQwo/s1600/nitrogen-wallpaper-different.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="different wallpaper each display ubuntu" border="0" height="90" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NpQ9lPkA98E/UHcr87gXQ4I/AAAAAAAAKsM/_DLgc2OGQwo/s320/nitrogen-wallpaper-different.png" title="different wallpaper each display ubuntu" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><i>Also see: </i><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/10/get-ubuntu-notifyosd-notifications-to.html"><i>Get Ubuntu NotifyOSD Notifications To Show Up On Active Monitor In Multi-Screen Environments</i><br /></a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Some info via <a href="http://askubuntu.com/">AskUbuntu</a> and <a href="http://www.ubunturoot.com/2011/07/fullscreen-flash-video-with-dual.html">ubunturoot</a></i></div>

Ubuntu Multi-Monitor Tweaks (Full Screen Flash Fixes, Span Wallpaper Across Monitors, More)

If you are using a multi-monitor setup in Ubuntu, here are a few tips which should help you fix some annoyances, like: get full screen flash...

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Get Movie Information And Play Trailers In Ubuntu Using Unity Movie Lens (With Previews Support)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7A4KCW3H_o/UHb5C3DOe8I/AAAAAAAAKqY/Fxa3BthazPo/s1600/movie-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity movie lens" border="0" height="209" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7A4KCW3H_o/UHb5C3DOe8I/AAAAAAAAKqY/Fxa3BthazPo/s320/movie-lens.png" title="unity movie lens" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.atareao.es/ubuntu/unity/las-peliculas-al-tablero-con-unity-lens-movie-en-ubuntu/">Lorenzo</a>, who has developed many useful Ubuntu tools (appindicators, lenses, etc.), has released yet another cool Unity lens with previews support: a Movie Lens.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Unity Movie Lens can be used to search for Movies and using the Previews feature (which can be accessed by right clicking on a search result) available in Ubuntu 12.10, you can see various movie information like the movie cover, rating, genre, artists and a movie description.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S3rEkes5BL0/UHb5HxXHNfI/AAAAAAAAKqg/LN6toA1eW_k/s1600/movie-lens-preview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity movie lens" border="0" height="208" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S3rEkes5BL0/UHb5HxXHNfI/AAAAAAAAKqg/LN6toA1eW_k/s320/movie-lens-preview.png" title="unity movie lens" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The lens doesn't have any filters yet, but it does have one more very useful feature: from the movie preview, you can select to <b>view the movie trailer in Totem</b> (if installed), without having to open a web browser.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unity Movie Lens uses the <a href="http://themoviedb.org/">themoviedb.org</a> API (unfortunately IMDB doesn't have an API) so it supports multiple languages. Therefore, if you have Ubuntu installed in a language other than English, the movie description should be displayed in that language, if themoviedb.org supports it. However, for the search queries, it's best to use English to make sure you get proper search results.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><br /><h2>Install Unity Movie Lens with Previews support in Ubuntu</h2><br /><b>To add the PPA and install Unity Movie Lens in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, use the commands below in a terminal:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/lenses<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install unity-lens-movie</code></pre><br />Once installed, restart Unity using the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>setsid unity</code></pre>Or log out and log back in.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://www.atareao.es/ubuntu/unity/las-peliculas-al-tablero-con-unity-lens-movie-en-ubuntu/">atareao.es</a></i></div>

Get Movie Information And Play Trailers In Ubuntu Using Unity Movie Lens (With Previews Support)

Lorenzo , who has developed many useful Ubuntu tools (appindicators, lenses, etc.), has released yet another cool Unity lens with previews s...

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Y PPA Manager 0.0.9.2 Released With New Features

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-URhUzstkOws/UHWtTt2qzrI/AAAAAAAAKo8/PT_CjWldgSk/s1600/y-ppa-manager.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="y-ppa-manager" border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-URhUzstkOws/UHWtTt2qzrI/AAAAAAAAKo8/PT_CjWldgSk/s320/y-ppa-manager.png" title="y-ppa-manager" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Y PPA Manager, like the name says, is a tool to manage PPAs: add, remove, purge PPAs, search for packages in Launchpad PPAs, list packages in a PPA and lots more, all from a single user interface. For a complete feature list, see the Y PPA Manager <a href="https://launchpad.net/y-ppa-manager">Launchpad page</a>.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Today I'm releasing Y PPA Manager 0.0.9.2, which comes with new features and many under the hood changes:</b></div><a name='more'></a><ul><li>Transient notifications for GNOME Shell</li><li>Initial support for Launchpad PPAs (only Launchpad!) added to /etc/apt/sources.list instead of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ (experimental). Note: the duplicate PPAs removal, "Re-enable working PPAs after Ubuntu upgrade" and "Update release name in working PPAs" features don't yet support this.</li><li>Some features like Remove PPA, Purge PPA or List Packages in PPAs have been merged into a single "Manage PPAs" dialog. Also, in this dialog, the PPA name is now displayed (e.g.: ppa:webupd8team/gthumb) instead of the PPA .list file name</li><li>Manage PPAs: new option to view/edit the .list source file</li><li>Manage PPAs: new option to update a single PPA. This was already implemented in Y PPA Manager and was used when adding a PPA, but there wasn't a GUI implementation to manually update single PPAs.</li><li>Many "update-ppa" improvements (this is the command line tool used to update single PPAs; use "update-ppa --help for more info), including a fix for Linux Mint or support for more repository formats, e.g. "update-ppa http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu quantal main".</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, Policykit (pkexec) is now used instead of gksu / kdesu for Ubuntu versions newer than 11.04. This brings consistency between desktop environments and for example, you get a native password dialog in GNOME Shell. With this change, you only have to enter the root password when you start Y PPA Manager and you won't be prompted each time you want to perform an action.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A complete list of changes can be found at <a href="https://launchpad.net/y-ppa-manager/+announcement/10715">Launchpad</a>.</div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O5EBYp-VTOE/UHWta1NviQI/AAAAAAAAKpE/y9FnOKaRIg0/s1600/y-ppa-manager2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="y ppa manager" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O5EBYp-VTOE/UHWta1NviQI/AAAAAAAAKpE/y9FnOKaRIg0/s450/y-ppa-manager2.png" title="y ppa manager" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I have to thank <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/114564489020097923600/posts">Satya</a> for his help with this release: he's the one who has implemented "update-ppa" to update single PPAs and he's also implemented most of the gksu to pkexec transition, along with bug fixes, testing and more.</div><br /><br /><h2>Install Y PPA Manager</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu / Linux Mint users can install Y PPA Manager using the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Because of the many changes in this release, you may find more bugs than usual - remember to report them @ <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/y-ppa-manager">Launchpad</a>!</div>

Y PPA Manager 0.0.9.2 Released With New Features

Y PPA Manager, like the name says, is a tool to manage PPAs: add, remove, purge PPAs, search for packages in Launchpad PPAs, list packages i...

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Get Ubuntu NotifyOSD Notifications To Show Up On Active Monitor In Multi-Screen Environments [Quick Tip]

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VpMruHdC1RU/UHVliAfJmOI/AAAAAAAAKnM/JH2LzPxQIdw/s1600/notification.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="notifyosd notification" border="0" height="160" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VpMruHdC1RU/UHVliAfJmOI/AAAAAAAAKnM/JH2LzPxQIdw/s320/notification.png" title="notifyosd notification" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>By default, the Ubuntu NotifyOSD notification bubbles are displayed on only one monitor in multi-monitor setups, which might be useful in some situations, but it doesn't make sense in most cases.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">For instance, if you're working on something on one monitor and get a notification on the other one, you're almost never going to see it and... maybe it's an important notification and you don't want to miss it. So here's a quick tip on <b>how to set the NotifyOSD notifications to follow the mouse in multi-screen environments</b> so they show up on the display which contains the active window.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Firstly, if you don't have dconf-tools already, install it using the command below:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install dconf-tools</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-glPyQ0HnQ1A/UHVl1cLyzhI/AAAAAAAAKnU/aHJ5LT-08_8/s1600/dconf-notifyosd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="dconf notifyosd" border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-glPyQ0HnQ1A/UHVl1cLyzhI/AAAAAAAAKnU/aHJ5LT-08_8/s320/dconf-notifyosd.png" title="dconf notifyosd" width="320" /></a></div><br />Then run dconf-editor, navigate to <b><i>apps > notifyosd</i></b> and change the "<b>multihead-mode</b>" value from "dont-focus-follow" to "<b>focus-follow</b>".<br /><br />That's it, the notification bubbles should now show up on the monitor you're currently working on (has the active window).</div><br /><br />

Get Ubuntu NotifyOSD Notifications To Show Up On Active Monitor In Multi-Screen Environments [Quick Tip]

By default, the Ubuntu NotifyOSD notification bubbles are displayed on only one monitor in multi-monitor setups, which might be useful in so...

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Unofficial Google Drive Linux Client `Insync` Hits Beta 9

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QhM_bVwV8kE/UHVG4qQXuEI/AAAAAAAAKlg/Ggbshvo8ONg/s1600/insync.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="insync linux" border="0" height="178" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QhM_bVwV8kE/UHVG4qQXuEI/AAAAAAAAKlg/Ggbshvo8ONg/s320/insync.png" title="insync linux" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/insync-google-drive-client-for-linux.html" title="Insync: Google Drive Client For Linux">Insync</a>, an unofficial Google Drive client for Linux, has reached beta 9, fixing the MS Office formats (files now downloaded as ODF) and glibc errors for Debian users, so the deb files aren't just for Ubuntu anymore.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://insynchq.com/">Insync</a> for Linux is free while in beta, but will probably become a paid service when it becomes stable. Hopefully, Google will release an official Google Drive client by then.</div><br />Here's what's new in the latest Insync for Linux beta 9:<br /><ul><li>fixed symlinks not live syncing (before you had to restart Insync for changes to be detected)</li><li>Nautilus context menu will not show outside of the Insync folder</li><li>Applets now have a pause/resume button to start/stop Insync from downloading and uploading</li><li>Gdocs are now downloaded in Open Document Format</li><li>Built with Debian, fixes GLIBC error for Debian users</li></ul><br /><a href="https://forums.insynchq.com/discussion/1499/insync-for-linux-beta-9-0-9-24">Download Insync for Linux beta 9</a> - applets available for Unity (should work with other DEs), GNOME Shell, Cinnamon and KDE (deb and rpm).<br /><br /><i>Also see: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/05/grive-open-source-google-drive-client.html">Grive: Open Source Google Drive Client For Linux</a></i>

Unofficial Google Drive Linux Client `Insync` Hits Beta 9

Insync , an unofficial Google Drive client for Linux, has reached beta 9, fixing the MS Office formats (files now downloaded as ODF) and gli...

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Keep Your Desktop Fresh With Variety Wallpaper Changer

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-72dV0qb2gVc/UHQTHMBq9BI/AAAAAAAAKkg/mzEXR0Enftw/s1600/vriety-preview-feature.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="variety wallpaper changer" border="0" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-72dV0qb2gVc/UHQTHMBq9BI/AAAAAAAAKkg/mzEXR0Enftw/s320/vriety-preview-feature.png" title="variety wallpaper changer" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://peterlevi.com/variety/">Variety</a> is a wallpaper changer application that works with most desktop environments</b> (KDE, LXDE, Xfce and Unity / GNOME Shell)<b> </b>and, besides being able to change your wallpaper automatically on an interval you set or on demand, the application <b>can automatically download wallpapers from Flickr, Wallbase.cc, Wallpapers.net as well as NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day</b>.</div><br /><b>Other Variety features:</b><br /><a name='more'></a><ul><li>Ubuntu appindicator support; you can scroll over the indicator icon to change the wallpaper</li><li>can apply fancy filters to the images: grayscale, heavy blur, oil painting, charcoal painting, pointilism, pixellate</li><li>option to display the time on the desktop, using a nice digital clock</li><li>clipboard support: can monitor the clipboard for image URLs and fetch them</li><li>more</li></ul><br />There's also a cool preview feature in the style of Google Plus - when clicking on a wallpaper source, you get to see a preview of all the available wallpapers on the bottom of the desktop (see screenshot from the beginning of the post).<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Variety 0.4.10</b> has been released recently, with new features, like support for RSS Feeds which means the application can now automatically download wallpapers from a lot more websites, including Picasa, deviantART and so on. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new version also brings a new wallpaper option: the world sunlight map, which changes throughout the day, an option to display current image source, see a list of recently downloaded images as well as command line options which is useful if you want to set up a script or use some custom keyboard shortcuts, etc.</div><br />Watch Variety in action in the video below:<br /><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/50978057" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="500"></iframe><br />(<a href="http://vimeo.com/50978057">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">There are quite a few wallpaper changer apps out there, but Variety stands out with its impressive feature list and ease of use. It doesn't matter if you're going to use your own wallpapers or the online features, if you want a dynamic, fresh desktop each day, try Variety!</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Variety wallpaper changer</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k3cDlCh0S6s/UHQURcSgSSI/AAAAAAAAKko/3XueVdNm9H4/s1600/variety-wallpaper-changer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="variety wallpaper changer" border="0" height="257" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k3cDlCh0S6s/UHQURcSgSSI/AAAAAAAAKko/3XueVdNm9H4/s320/variety-wallpaper-changer.png" title="variety wallpaper changer" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Variety is available in the Ubuntu Software Center (for Ubuntu 12.04 / 12.10), but the version is quite old so to install the latest version, you can use its official PPA:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install variety</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The PPA packages should also work in Linux Mint.<br /><br />Update: there is now an AUR package too so <b>Arch Linux users can install Variety from <a href="http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=63454">HERE</a></b>.<br /><br /><b>For other Linux distributions, download Variety from <a href="https://launchpad.net/variety/+download">Launchpad</a>.</b></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>thanks to Peter Levi for the tip!</i></div>

Keep Your Desktop Fresh With Variety Wallpaper Changer

Variety is a wallpaper changer application that works with most desktop environments (KDE, LXDE, Xfce and Unity / GNOME Shell) and, besid...

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Alternative YouTube Video Lens Updated With Previews, More [Ubuntu 12.10]

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sSkIFOo9HTM/UHQAJBK9JGI/AAAAAAAAKjg/vyb74J8UH5Q/s1600/youtube-scope_11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sSkIFOo9HTM/UHQAJBK9JGI/AAAAAAAAKjg/vyb74J8UH5Q/s320/youtube-scope_11.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/youtube-scope-for-unity-video-lens-with.html">while back</a>, <a href="http://www.atareao.es/">Lorenzo</a> has created an alternative video lens and YouTube scope for Unity, which can be used to easily search and play YouTube videos using an external player of your choice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Unity in Ubuntu 12.10 does have its own video lens, but it only supports YouTube Shows, Movies and Educations, so most YouTube results won't show up in the default Ubuntu video lens.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Lorenzo's YouTube lens/scope has been updated for Ubuntu 12.10 recently, getting proper video previews</b> (I say "proper" because the default Ubuntu 12.10 video lens previews are kind of broken) which display the license, view count, likes and dislikes, the video description along with a video image and options to play the video using the player selected from the YouTube scope settings or open it in a web browser - check it out:</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7z3Gouw_CtA/UHQAQCX9QeI/AAAAAAAAKjo/vnl1is8_kJA/s1600/youtube-scope_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7z3Gouw_CtA/UHQAQCX9QeI/AAAAAAAAKjo/vnl1is8_kJA/s320/youtube-scope_2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For those not familiar with this YouTube scope, besides being able to easily search for YouTube videos,<b> it comes with a tool that lets you select an external player for viewing YouTube videos</b>, so you don't have to open your browser (and without Flash). In the latest version, more players are supported and <b>you can download videos as well</b>, feature for which <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2010/07/update-youtube-dl-to-get-it-working.html">youtube-dl</a>, a command line tool to download YouTube videos, is used.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fdh-D8OCb3I/UHQAe_dcumI/AAAAAAAAKjw/LkkkjSBejdQ/s1600/youtube-scope-gui.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fdh-D8OCb3I/UHQAe_dcumI/AAAAAAAAKjw/LkkkjSBejdQ/s320/youtube-scope-gui.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>The new version also comes with speed improvements and better search results, along with other new features, such as:</b><br /><ul><li>filter videos by length (short: less than four minutes, medium: less than twenty minutes, long: videos longer than twenty minutes)</li><li>filters for HD or 3D videos</li><li>new supported video players like Totem or SMPlayer</li><li>option to download videos which supports selecting the downloaded video format</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install YouTube scope/lens in Ubuntu 12.10</h2><br /><b>Add the PPA and install the alternative YouTube scope/lens in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal using the following commands:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/lenses <br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install yavol scope-youtube youtube-dl</code></pre><br /><b>Once installed, restart Unity:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>setsid unity</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To configure which video player to use for viewing YouTube videos, launch Yavol from Dash</b> (shows up as "yavol-scope-youtube-configurator"). In my test, VLC didn't work properly, so I suggest using something like Totem or Minitube to play the videos.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://www.atareao.es/ubuntu/unity/scope-youtube-yavol-quantal-quetzal-y-previews/">atareao.es</a></i></div>

Alternative YouTube Video Lens Updated With Previews, More [Ubuntu 12.10]

A while back , Lorenzo has created an alternative video lens and YouTube scope for Unity, which can be used to easily search and play YouTu...

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