readers

This one's been posted already at a lot of different blog sites, but it's worth repeating:

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one."

-- George R. R. Martin, spoken by one of his characters in A Dance With Dragons.


For a short review on A Dance With Dragons, see: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20509545,00.html

present windows - all desktops

In Mepis 11, I have KDE4's screen edges set so that I can move the cursor to the bottom right corner to bring up the desktop grid. This is quite useful for taking a look at what's on each virtual desktop and moving quick to a different desktop.

But I have the top left corner set to "Present Windows - All Desktops." This one gives me a look at all open application windows, and of course I can click on any one of them to go to that window.

That's just a tool to use in addition to the desktop grid and the panel's Task Manager. Here's the Screen Edges GUI used to set it up (System Settings > Window Behavior > Screen Edges):

USB flash drive synonyms

Some terms that folks use to refer to a USB flash drive:

- jump drive
- memory stick
- USB memory key
- thumb drive
- pen drive
- USB stick
- pocket drive
- disk on key
- USB key
- data stick
- finger stick
- keychain drive
- key drive
- memory key

f15 (gnome3) from flash drive

After spending some time using Unity in Ubuntu Natty, I wanted to take a look at GNOME 3 in Fedora 15. I downloaded the Fedora-15-i686-Live-Desktop.iso and verified the sha256sum, and then used a couple of different methods to create bootable flash drives.

First, I used MultiSystem, which I already have installed in Ubuntu Lucid. Very easy to use, and the live session booted up fine.

Next, I installed unetbootin in Mepis 11, and used that to create the flash drive. unetbootin was also surprisingly easy. Fedora 15 is not listed as one of the Fedora versions supported by unetbootin, but everything worked fine.

I think that in either case, the flash drive needs to be formatted to FAT32. The Linux dd command is also mentioned as an easy way to create bootable flash drives, but I haven't tried that one yet.

Now, for some screen shots of Fedora 15's GNOME 3 version (which is the main version), from the unetbootin live session.

Here's the desktop with a wallpaper that's very close to the default wallpaper, except with some decoration in the lower right:

Clicking on "Activities" in the upper left corner brings up the menu. Here's the System Tools menu:

Looks like you can't do much desktop configuration without installing some things like gnome-tweak-tool, but you can do some basic things from the live session.

Here's a shot of some kind of bug that I've seen a few times in the live sessions:

I haven't bothered to research that yet.

I'm not crazy about the way GNOME 3 does workspaces; it's different, but it works for getting around. You have to go to "Activities" for the workspaces to show up along the right side of the screen, or to even change workspaces using the mouse. They call them "dynamic workspaces." The desktop starts out with one workspace; if you start an application, you get the workspace that the application starts in plus one empty workspace. Each time you start an application in an empty workspace, you end up with another emply workspace. The dock along the left side starts out with big, juicy icons, but they become smaller when you have more applications running.

I felt that the workspace grid in Unity and desktop grid in KDE4 are better ways to deal with workspaces than how things are done in GNOME 3, but maybe "dynamic workspaces" just takes some getting used to.

Here's a shot of the desktop with a wallpaper chosen from Fedora 15's default collection:

The crash in the gvfs-1.8.1-1.fc15 package occurred again and again during my live sessions, so that's a concern. Another problem was that I was unable to change the time on the clock at the top and make it stick. Those and the fact that configuration options were limited might not be issues in a hard drive installation.

The system felt fast and responsive; the menu was fairly easy to get around, but I didn't like the fact that you had to go to "Activities" to do just about anything with the mouse, including opening up applications. The search tool that shows up in the upper right in "Activities" is nice, but using it to find and open up apps requires using the keyboard.

Fedora 15 came with Firefox 4.0.1, which is already old (!). There was no office suite with the live CD .iso.

The lack of minimize/maximize buttons for applications struck me as odd, but double-clicking at the top of an application window toggles between the two modes, and right-clicking in the same place brings up more options. You can drag windows from one workspace to another using the workspaces thing along the right side when in "Activities."

My initial impression is that GNOME 3 is not as easy for getting things done as Unity, but other folks feel differently, and perhaps my opinion will change over time. Also, I think that Unity looks better -- less childish, more attractive. But that's a matter of opinion, too.

I'm in no hurry to use GNOME 3, and what I've seen from these live sessions doesn't inspire me to do a hard drive installation of Fedora 15's main version (I already have the KDE spin installed), but I figure that GNOME 3 will improve and that a lot of people will be happy with it and that I'll be fine using it whenever I get around to installing it.

u3 -- gone!

In Ubuntu Lucid, I installed u3-tool and used it to remove the U3 stuff from a Memorex TravelDrive flash drive. Check man u3-tool for more info. u3-tool is also available from the Debian repos.

I inserted the flash drive. Then, I checked System > Administration > Disk Utility. The drive was shown at /dev/sdc and the volume at /dev/sdc1.

I ran the following commands, which basically just gave me a look at things:

steve[~]$  sudo u3-tool -i /dev/sdc1 
Total device size:   1.88 GB (2017984512 bytes) 
CD size:             4.09 MB (4292608 bytes) 
Data partition size: 1.88 GB (2013691904 bytes) 
steve[~]$  sudo u3-tool -h

u3-tool 0.3 - U3 USB stick manager 

Usage: u3-tool [options]  

Options: 
-c                Change password 
-d                Disable device security 
-D                Dump all raw info(for debug) 
-e                Enable device security 
-h                Print this help message 
-i                Display device info 
-l     Load CD image into device 
-p      Repartition device 
-R                Reset device security, destroying private data 
-u                Unlock device 
-v                Use verbose output 
-V                Print version information 

For the device name use: 
  '/dev/sda0', '/dev/sg3' 

According to some tips I found in an Ubuntu forums thread, the output at the end of that second command shows the devices names that should be used.

So, I ran the following command:

steve[~]$  sudo u3-tool -p 0 /dev/sg3 

WARNING: Loading a new cd image causes the whole device to be whiped. This INCLUDES 
 the data partition. 
I repeat: ANY EXCISTING DATA WILL BE LOST! 

Are you sure you want to continue? [yn] y 
steve[~]$ 

So, I opened GParted and saw that all that was left was a FAT16 partition (1.88 GB) and about 4 MB unallocated. I unmounted the FAT16 partition and then resized it to take up the rest of the drive.

Next, I took a look at things again with this command:

steve[~]$  sudo u3-tool -i /dev/sdc1 
Total device size:   1.88 GB (2017984512 bytes) 
CD size:             0.00B (0 bytes) 
Data partition size: 1.88 GB (2017984512 bytes)

So, u3-tool worked and the U3 part is gone -- yay!

changing workspaces in unity

One of the big complaints about Ubuntu's Unity is that there's no workspace pager on the panel to quickly switch workspaces. There's the Workspace Switcher on the Unity launcher, but a common complaint about it is that using it to change workspaces requires too many clicks -- for example, a click on the Workspace Switcher item to bring up the workspace grid, and then a double-click on the workspace you want to move to.

However, in Unity there are a few different ways of moving to different workspaces:

- Using the Workspace Switcher alone, I've found that once the grid is showing, a right-click instead of a double-click is an easier way to move to the workspace you want to go to.

- I installed the Workspace Indicator applet (found out about it at http://www.techdrivein.com/2011/05/10-useful-application-indicators-for.html). With this applet, two clicks takes you to the workspace you want to go to; or, you can use the mouse wheel to change workspaces.

- The ctrl+alt+arrowkeys combo works nicely for moving to different workspaces.

- You can set up the mouse wheel to take you to different workspaces (if the desktop is visible and the application window is not maximized). I did this by going to CompizConfig Settings Manager > Desktop section > Viewport Switcher > Desktop-based Viewport Switching and setting "Move Next" to Button5 and "Move Previous" to Button4.

- The Super+s keystroke also brings up the Workspace Switcher. Convenient in certain situations.

- Finally, I set up a desktop edge to bring up the Workspace Switcher by going to CompizConfig Settings Manager > Desktop section > Expo > Bindings tab. "Expo edge" is disabled by default, but if you click on the "Engage wall expo mode edge binding" button (the button will be marked "Disabled" but you can see what it's called when the cursor is hovering over it) you can set the binding to whatever edge you choose. With this set, changing workspaces requires only moving the cursor to your set edge and right-clicking on the desktop you want to move to.

Even all these options won't make some people happy. Some folks simply want a workspace pager. In Ubuntu Natty, those folks could always go to Control Center > Startup Applications, create an entry for gnome-panel to start at the beginning of a session, and simply add the Workspace Switcher to the panel. Installing something like xfce4-panel or AWN (Avant Window Navigator) should also work fine -- once installed, just add a workspace pager to one of those, if one isn't present by default.

unity quicklists

You can create quicklists for Unity's launcher buttons to make it easier to get to certain tasks and applications. To get an idea of the kinds of things that can be done, visit this web page at askubuntu.com or do a web search using the search terms unity quicklist.

In Ubuntu Natty, I created a couple of launcher buttons that when I right-click on them show some of my favorite applications. The first thing I had to do was create the directory ~/.local/share/applications.

I'll show how I created a Graphics button containing a couple of applications, KSnapshot and Geeqie. To begin, I created the graphics.desktop file using the following command:

$ gedit ~/.local/share/applications/graphics.desktop

The contents of that file:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=
Name=Graphics
Icon=/usr/share/icons/Humanity/categories/48/applications-graphics.svg
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=KSnapShot;Geeqie;

[KSnapShot Shortcut Group]
Name=ksnapshot
Exec=ksnapshot
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Geeqie Shortcut Group]
Name=geeqie
Exec=geeqie
TargetEnvironment=Unity

The order of the list of shortcuts on the "X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=" line determines the order that they'll appear when you right-click on the button. If you have other "shortcut groups" defined below that line, only the ones in the "X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=" line will appear when you right-click on the button.

Once I created the file, I simply drag-and-dropped the file from Dolphin onto the launcher.

If you make changes to the .desktop file, you'll have to log out and log back into your Unity session.

A couple of shots to show how it turned out:

Here's the entire desktop, showing my "Utilities" button with its quicklist opened up: