Installing Sigil (Ubuntu 13.04)

To install Sigil, in a terminal, type...

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sunab/sigil-git
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sigil

Change ripping bitrate in K3b

Go to Settings>Configure K3b>Plug-ins>K3b external audio encoder  and edit the configured encoder line by inserting your chosen bitrate before the -h. See example.

lame -r --bitwidth 16 --little-endian -s 44.1 -b 192 -h --tt %t --ta %a --tl %m --ty %y --tc %c - %f

Stop Totem Saving Your History

To permanently remove the recent file list from totem, edit /usr/share/totem/totem.ui as root and change the following line: (Change square brackets with angle brackets.)

[separator name="recent-separator"/]
[placeholder name="recent-placeholder"/] 

to:

[!--[separator name="recent-separator"/]
[placeholder name="recent-placeholder"/]--] 

N.B. Remove the part that you added to reactive history.

Fixing a Broken Encrypted Swap Partition (Ubuntu and Xubuntu 12.04)

For some reason, with all of the Ubuntu derivatives I end up with a busted SWAP partition. This manifests itself in no defined SWAP at all, and a blacked out SWAP partition when viewed in Gparted. The solution is to redefine the SWAP partition, as follows. (If in doubt where your SWAP partition is, run 'sudo fdisk -l'.)

sudo swapoff -a
sudo cryptsetup remove /dev/mapper/cryptswap1
sudo gedit /etc/crypttab

Remove the SWAP line (e.g. /dev/sda3)

sudo /sbin/mkswap /dev/sda3
sudo swapon /dev/sda3
sudo gedit /etc/fstab 

Replace /dev/mapper/cryptswap1 with /dev/sda3.

If you're feeling brave and fancy trying to re-encrypt it, use...

sudo ecryptfs-setup-swap

If it all goes wrong, just repeat the process above.

N.B. Obviously /dev/sda3 in the above example is just that, an example. Replace it with whatever you find in your 'sudo  fdisk -l' results.

** To test whether swap is enabled use:

free -m

How to Set Up IMAP on a Nokia N95 Phone

Go to Messaging -> Options -> Settings -> Email -> Mailboxes and add a new mailbox. Follow the Wizard.

 

Select IMAP4:

CPU Sensor (Ubuntu 12.04)

To install a panel CPU applet in Ubuntu 12.04 type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:indicator-multiload/stable-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

... and then run 'System Load Indicator' from the dash.

Fixing Blue Tint Video (Linux Mint 13 and Ubuntu 12.04)

Open 'gstreamer-properties' by typing into a terminal...  

$ gstreamer-properties 

 Click on the 'Video' tab. Under 'Default Output' choose the 'Plugin' dropdown and select 'Custom'. Add the following line to the 'Pipeline' box. 

videobalance hue=-1 ! autovideosink

 If that doesn't work, it might be worth turning off  'Xv optimizations'. Under the same tab choose... 

X Window System (No Xv)  

 If this method doesn't work... try the following here.

Installing nVidia GT640 Graphics Driver (Mint 13 and Ubuntu 12.04)

Add the following lines to your repositories list...

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu precise main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu precise main

By doing...

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

And then import the GPG key with...

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x643dc6bd56580ceb1ab4a9f63b22ab97af1cdfa9

Refresh packages list in Synaptic and install.

More here.

ntfs-config fstab backup

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

#Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=279fac8b-181e-45c4-8065-b1987f60af18    /    reiserfs    defaults    1    1
#Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=fd1ddbf7-fd4e-45e3-8f49-eecbe79364d1    /home    reiserfs    defaults    1    2
#Entry for /dev/sdb2 :
UUID=7C4E91931FB789D8    /media/Archives    ntfs-3g    defaults,nosuid,nodev,locale=en_GB.UTF-8    0    0
#Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=1FE78CC5354CF414    /media/Audio    ntfs-3g    defaults,nosuid,nodev,locale=en_GB.UTF-8    0    0
#Entry for /dev/sdb8 :
UUID=74C0A9D0654C02BB    /media/Video    ntfs-3g    defaults,nosuid,nodev,locale=en_GB.UTF-8    0    0
none    /proc    proc    defaults    0    0
#Entry for /dev/sda7 :
UUID=47562d14-80e8-4cb9-9907-2847bfdc4550    swap    swap    defaults    0    0

Stopping Nepomuk/Akondi in KDE

Disabling akondi: press 'alt+f2' on the keyboard to bring up the Run dialog box, start typing 'akonadi' and 'Akonadi configuration' will appear in the drop down menu. Click it and go to the Akonadi server configuration tab, then press Stop at the bottom right plus un-check 'Use internal MYsQL server'. A notification should show that akonadi has been stopped.

1. Disable Semantic Desktop
a: System Settings -> Desktop Search -> Basic Settings, un-check 'Nepomuk' and 'Strigi' if it's not already.
b: System Settings -> Desktop Search -> Desktop Query, un-check “Index files on removable media” and un-check every folder under “Customise index folders…”
c: System Settings -> Desktop Search -> Backup, set “Backup frequency” to Disable

2. Disable Nepomuk related notifications:
a: System Settings -> Application and System Notifications -> Manage Notifications, un-check all the “Show me a message in a popup” under “Desktop Search” and Semantic Desktop”

Kgpg not working?

For some reason, running Kgpg from the menu results in the program crashing. Try replacing "kgpg %U" with "kgpg -k".

Installing nVidia Graphics Card (Fedora 16)

Check is your nVidia card is supported:

lspci |grep -i VGA

Assuming it is, then make sure you have the latest kernel and latest SELinux policy packages...

su -
yum update kernel* selinux-policy*
reboot

Add the RPMFusion repositories (free and non-free)...

rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

Install nVidia proprietary drivers for GeForce 6/7/8/9/200/300/400/500 series cards. Generally, I use the first one (alkmod)...

yum install akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs

But you can also use kmod:

yum install kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs

Or Kernel-PAE:

yum install kernel-PAE-devel

Or even kmod-nvidia-PAE and kernel-PAE-devel:

yum install kernel-PAE-devel kmod-nvidia-PAE

Remove/disable nouveau drivers from kernel initramfs:

## Backup old initramfs nouveau image ##
mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r)-nouveau.img

## Create new initramfs image ##
dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

And reboot.

Note: Sometimes rdblacklist=nouveau nouveau.modeset=0 is missing from GRUB2. If so, open up etc/default,grub and replace...

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet rhgb"

With...

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet rhgb rdblacklist=nouveau nouveau.modeset=0"

Then make grub2 config with grub2-mkconfig command:

grub2-mkconfig

Reboot and create an xorg.conf file in /etc/X11 with the following information:

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
Vendorname "Generic LCD Display"
Modelname "LCD Panel 1280x1024"
Horizsync 24.0 - 80.0
Vertrefresh 50.0 - 75.0
modeline "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -vsync -hsync
modeline "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
modeline "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
modeline "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
modeline "1280x960@60" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync
modeline "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
Gamma 1.0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Virtual 1280 1024
Modes "1280x1024@60" "1280x960@60" "1024x768@60" "800x600@60" "800x600@56" "640x480@60"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Video Card"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Backup xorg.conf (Fedora 16)

Section "Module"
    Load        "glx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
 Vendorname "Generic LCD Display"
 Modelname "LCD Panel 1280x1024"
 Horizsync 24.0 - 80.0
 Vertrefresh 50.0 - 75.0
 modeline "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -vsync -hsync
 modeline "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
 modeline "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
 modeline "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
 modeline "1280x960@60" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync
 modeline "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
 Gamma 1.0
 EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
 Defaultdepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
 Depth 24
 Virtual 1280 1024
 Modes "1280x1024@60" "1280x960@60" "1024x768@60" "800x600@60" "800x600@56" "640x480@60"
 EndSubSection
 EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Video Card"
    Driver              "nvidia"
EndSection