No Screensaver in Gnome 3?

Problem: Screensaver although installed, doesn't seem to work. The issue appears to be that xscreensaver doesn't auto-start. (Check in 'System Monitor' to see whether this is the case.)

If it is, in home>.config>autostart create an empty text-file called  'xscreensaver.desktop' and paste in the following information and reboot (then check 'System Monitor' again):

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=/usr/bin/xscreensaver -nosplash
Hidden=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Name=xscreensaver
Comment=Screensaver for xserver
Name[en_GB]=xscreensaver

* Fill in red fields as necessary for your system.

Making Icons Visible on the Desktop (Gnome 3)

Hit alt>F2 and type...

dconf-editor

Go to org>gnome>desktop>background and tick "Show Desktop Icons". If you want to remove the Computer/Recycle Bin/Mounted Volumes go to nautilus>desktop and untick the relevant boxes.

Changing Default Applications (Gnome 3)

To change your preferred browser/file manager/email program in GNOME 3, type into a terminal.

exo-preferred-applications

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Start Script

#! /bin/bash

unset OPTIMUS_PREFIX
# In case of an optimus-enabled laptop, the use of primusrun is recommended over optirun.
# Don't uncomment this line in any other case.
# OPTIMUS_PREFIX="primusrun"

# If you store the script anywhere else than the game directory, change this to the path of your launcher.exe
LAUNCHER_COMMAND="wine launcher.exe"
#LAUNCHER_COMMAND="wine explorer /desktop=name,1920x1080 launcher.exe"

 
# Set up a new wineprefix in the game directory, and reduce debugging to improve performance.
# If you don't like it there, or running the script from somewhere else, change it.
# Please note that WINEARCH=win32 is REQUIRED.
export WINEARCH=win32
export WINEDEBUG=-all
export WINEPREFIX="$( pwd )/wineprefix"

# Check if we have swtor_fix.exe, and download it if we don't.
# This can be placed anywhere on the system, and must be run parallel to the game.

if [ ! -f swtor_fix.exe ]; then
    wget -O swtor_fix.exe https://github.com/aljen/swtor_fix/raw/master/swtor_fix.exe
fi
# Start it parallely.
wine swtor_fix.exe &
# Give it a sec to fire up.
sleep 1
# Install and set up components in wineprefix.
# Since that command does nothing if already ran, we need no checks there.
winetricks msvcp90=native d3dx9_36 vcrun2008 msls31 winhttp

# Here we come!
$OPTIMUS_PREFIX $LAUNCHER_COMMAND

# Since wait for swtor_fix.exe to finish.
wait $!

# Clean up after ourselves.
unset WINEARCH
unset WINEPREFIX
unset WINEDEBUG

Fixing the hddtemp Permissions Problem (Linux Mint)

To enable the CPU panel applet to display the hddtemp reading type into a console...

sudo chmod u+s /usr/sbin/hddtemp

FSTAB Backup (Linux Mint 15)

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#            

#Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=a8df1bf1-348e-488d-8b4b-85cf697508a2 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
#Entry for /dev/sda3 :
UUID=af6228ed-ecf6-4ba5-b41b-1ee2ad3131d1 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
#Entry for /dev/sdb5 :
UUID=6A96512F11008B6C /media/Archives ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=717C64040B1AAA85 /media/Audio ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdb7 :
UUID=22B1D8761652CD13 /media/Audiobooks ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdb2 :
UUID=4DA5A9D475203A97 /media/Comics ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdb3 :
UUID=5738040F13AA6DB3 /media/Encrypted ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=7DD730AC7EBC41BA /media/Storage ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdb6 :
UUID=3D6F4D094E05930A /media/Television ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sdb8 :
UUID=485D903C5ED3DE8B /media/Video ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
#Entry for /dev/mapper/cryptswap1 :
/dev/sda5 none swap sw 0 0
#UUID=86612f93-9212-4b65-a84e-5e2246958ee6 none swap sw 0 0

#UUID=4911e8b6-c879-459b-8d47-3a5d2dbe19fb none swap sw 0 0

Fixing Skype 64 Bit (Linux Mint 16)

I kept having this problem installing the 32 bit version of Linux in Linux 64 bit: pusleaudio would never show up is the sound options. To fix it, I ended up installing the i386 version of libpulse

apt-get install libpulse0:i386

It may also be worth trying to run Skype from a terminal using...

PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 skype 

If it works, try adding...

Exec=/usr/bin/env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 /usr/bin/skype %U

... to the 'exec' line in the .desktop file.

Solving the Permissions HDD Fault (Linux Mint 15)

To solve the permissions fault when using the XFCE sensors applet, type into a console...

sudo chmod u+s /usr/bin/hddtemp

... and reboot.

Backup Mirrors for /etc/pacman-mirrors-conf (Manjaro)

##
## /etc/pacman-mirrors.conf
##

## Branch Pacman should use (stable, testing, unstable)
Branch=stable

## Generation method
## 1) rank   - rank mirrors depending on their access time
## 2) random - randomly generate the output mirrorlist
Method=rank

## Specify to use only mirrors from a specific country
## Disabled by default
OnlyCountry=United_Kingdom

## Input mirrorlist directory
MirrorlistsDir="/etc/pacman.d/mirrors"

## Output mirrorlist
OutputMirrorlist="/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist"

Setting Up NTP Server on Manjaro

Create a text file containing the following....

#!/bin/bash
systemctl stop ntpd.service
ntpd -qg
ntpd -qg
ntpd -qg
ntpd -qg
systemctl start ntpd.service
hwclock -w

... and name file ntp.sh and make executable.

Edit /etc/ntp.conf and under '# Associate to public NTP pool servers; see http://www.pool.ntp.org/', replace the three lines of 'server 0.pool.ntp.org' with...

server 0.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 1.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 2.uk pool.ntp.org
server 3.uk pool.ntp.org

N.B. The 'uk' is for United Kingdom. Insert your own region.

Save, and as sudo, run ntp.sh script.

sudo ./ntp.sh

To sync the clock every time your computer boots run...

sudo systemctl enable ntpd 

N.B. Alternately, replace 'systemctl start ntpd.service' in the top script with the above command.

Fixing the "RTMP ReadPacket failed" error in iPlayer

To fix "RTMP_ReadPacket, failed to read RTMP packet header" error, try typing the following into a terminal:

get_iplayer --prefs-add --rtmp-tv-opts="--swfVfy http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/releases/iplayer/revisions/617463_618125_4/617463_618125_4_emp.swf"

... and then use as normal.

More info on the cause here.

Installing 34 bit Skype on 64 bit Xubuntu

First, install 32 bit architecture, then update:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update 

Then add necessary Canonical repo and install Skype.

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/
$(lsb_release -sc) partner"
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install skype

Making Skype Work on Xubuntu 13.04 with nVidia Drivers

1. Install Skype from .deb from main website.

2. Rename the 'skype' executable found at /usr/bin to /usr/bin/skype-bin

3. Create the text file /usr/bin/skype and copy and paste the following information and save.

#!/bin/sh
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/libGL.so.1
exec /usr/bin/skype-bin

4. Set 0775 permissions on /usr/bin/skype

sudo chmod 0775 /usr/bin/skype