Customize Compiz Fusion effects In Ubuntu

Ubuntu 8.04(Hardy Heron) comes with a full featured version of Compiz Fusion, but the main problem is that there is no way to configure these effects. To configure the different options we will use a tool called Compiz Config. To install it open up synaptic manager and search for Compiz Config

Once Compiz Config is installed, open it and you will get an interface similar to this:

The interface is pretty simple a checked option means the effect is enabled and an unchecked option means the effect is disabled, to configure individual effects like key bindings click on the image of the effect. Now I am going to show you some of my favourite effects and their output:

1) Fire on the screen: You can use it to paint text with fire on your screen, to use it press the key combo Shift+ windows key and left click and fire will be painted on the screen.

While the fire text is on your screen your normal desktop works and you can do all tasks such as browsing the web. To clear the text press the key combo Shift+Windows Key+C and the fire text will be cleared

2) Expo: Gives you a preview of your desktops that are enabled, to use it press the key combo Windows key+e

3)Wobbly Windows: a favourite for many people who use Compiz Fusion. It basically makes your windows wobble like water

4) Water Effect: Makes it rain on your desktop extremely good for killing productivity. To activate it press Ctrl+Windows key

5) Shift Switcher: Goes through your windows in a way similar to cover flow in iTunes. To use it press Windows key+Tab

6) Ring Switcher: Makes your windows form in a ring to use it simply use the Alt+tab because this plugin disables the default view of alt+tab

So start customizing Compiz fusion to your liking!

Use Utorrent or any other windows application in Linux

There are many good bit torrent clients available for Linux such as Ktorrent, Azereus and Bitornado. But people who have recently switched to Linux may want to use Utorrent either because of its functionality or because they are familiar with it. I am going to show you how to do it using a program called WINE (Wine Is Not An Emulator), with WINE you can run a lot of Windows programs within Linux.

Now to install WINE you first need to add its repository to your sources list which is simple to do. First click on System

Now click on Administration then open the Synaptic Package Manager, once Synaptic window shows up click on settings and then click on Repositories. You will get a window similar to this:

Now click on third party software. You will then be presented with a window like this:

Click on Add and you will be prompted to enter the APT line which is:

http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt

Now click on close and exit Synaptic. Now for Ubuntu to detect WINE from the new repository execute the following command from a terminal:

sudo apt-get update

After the Repositories are updated use this command to install WINE:

sudo apt-get install wine

Now WINE is installed but there is a problem, the theme that WINE uses by default looks very ugly, the WINE developers thought of this and that is why they added the functionality to install Windows themes in WINE.

Here is WINE before the theme has been applied:

And here it is after it was applied:

Now onto installing Utorrent, first you need to get the installer from the Utorrent website. Now after it is downloaded click the Utorrent icon on desktop to install it and while installing it remember to select to install an menu in the task bar so that you can easily access Utorrent, now that you have installed it open Utorrent by clicking the desktop icon and that’s it you are ready to use the most popular bittorrent client.

Here Is a screenshot of Utorrent running in Ubuntu:

Some people also wonder where WINE’s emulated C drive is? to navigate to that simply select for the hidden files to be shown and in your home folder will be a file called .wine this is WINE’s emulated C drive

you can install any windows application in Linux using the same method!

Install KDE 4.1 in Ubuntu/Kubuntu

KDE 4.1 was released to address many of the issues and complaints people had against KDE 4 and it completely lives upto its expectations.From better application integration to the many new desktop effects similar to compiz fusion are added in this version. Beware though KDE 4.1 is still in beta stage so I would suggest you back up all your data before installing it.

First you need to edit your sources list to add the KDE 4.1 repository, to do that simply enter this command into the terminal

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

this will open up Gedit and will list all your repositories at the end just add this line

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu hardy main

This is the KDE 4.1 repository now save the file and exit gedit, Ubuntu now needs to read the packages from the newly added repository to do that simply enter this into the terminal

sudo apt-get update

Now to install KDE 4.1 if you are using Ubuntu execute this command

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-kde4-desktop

If you are using Kubuntu execute this command

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

And now just restart your computer then when asked to enter your user name and password in sessions select KDE 4 as the default desktop environment so that the next time you start you wont have to select KDE 4 again and again

To find out about the new features in KDE 4 just go here http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.1-beta1.php

How To: Take Screencasts Of Your Linux Desktop

Now many people want to take screen casts a.k.a video captures of their Linux desktop to maybe show someone how to do a specific task or something like that. Video Screencasts are much better than the ordinary still screen shots.Taking screen casts is really easy, I am going to show you how to do so using two programs the first is called Xvid cap which you can download from the repositories of your Linux distribution.

When you first start Xvid cap you get a red square like the one in the image below:

This red square is your recording area means that anything inside this square will be part of your video and anything outside it will not. You can resize the square to fit your needs. To start recording simply click on the red button like the one in the image below:

Now your recording has started, if you would like to pause your recording for a while just click on the pause button, and to stop it completely click on the stop button. When you click on the stop button you will get an option to save the video, and your done you have just made a screen cast in Linux. Xvid cap by default encodes in real time using Xvid(obviously) as a video codec and mp3 for audio

The second tool is called Istanbul, and it is very simple. Like Xvid Cap you can get Istanbul from the repositories of your Linux distribution. The first time you start Istanbul you get nothing but a small red button in your task bar or panel like below:

To start a recording simply click on the red button like the one pictured above, the red button will turn into a gray stop sign and clicking on the stop sign will stop your recording and and a dialogue box will prompt you as to where to save the recording, and your done, its that simple. Istanbul unlike Xvidcap saves in the open source codec Theora for video and Vorbis for audio.

Connecting To The Internet Via Your Cellphone in Linux

Many People who are new to Linux are confused a bit on how to connect to the internet using their cellphone via bluetooth, it’s quite simple actually here’s the procedure which will get you started with it:

first turn your bluetooth adapter on ,most Linux distros by default have drivers for bluetooth adapter so no worries there. Now first u need to find the mac address of your phone,to do that open a command line and type

sdptool search DUN

you will get an output like this

“username”:/ # sdptool search DUN
Inquiring …
Searching for DUN on 00:16:DB:D5:9C:1C …
Service Name: Dial-up networking
Service RecHandle: 0×10001
Service Class ID List:
“Dialup Networking” (0×00001103)
Protocol Descriptor List:
“L2CAP” (0×00000100)
“RFCOMM” (0×00000003)
Channel: 2
Profile Descriptor List:
“Dialup Networking” (0×00001103)
Version: 0×0100
“username”:/ #

Now your phone’s mac address and the channel used will be flashing on your screen,now we need to bind these to a port. Simply open a command line again and type

rfcomm bind 0 “put your mac address here” 2 (remove the quotes)

now to check if ur phone has been binded to the port type rfcomm

the output of which will be similar to this: rfcomm0: “your mac address” channel 2 clean

now we will use an application called KPPP to dial the connection for us. If you are usin the KDE desktop environment then KPPP comes installed by default but if you are using Gnome then u will need to install it. Now open KPPP and and click on configure

On the Device tab, give the modem a name that you like, set Modem device to /dev/rfcomm0, Flow control to None, Line termination to CR, and Connection speed to 921600, uncheck Use lock file, and then click on Ok:

Select the created Modem and click on Edit

Click on the Modem tab then click on Modem Commands match the configurations to this:

Now the highlighted selected section in the above image is your service providers APN you will have to find it in the settings specified in your cellphone to connect to your service providers network. Now click OK and then click on Ok again. Now Click on the Accounts tab and click on New:

When prompted select the manual setup:

Give the connection a name you like, then click on Add and add the phone number *99#, Select the authentication as PAP/CHAP, check store password, set callback type to none and click on OK:

Now select the Connection you just created and enter the User Name and Password given to you by your Service Provider and click on OK, and your done!! Now you can browse the internet using your cellphone: