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

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

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

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.

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".

Auto-Start Numlock (Mandriva 2011)

To start numlock on boot, first download the numlock package, then enable it in...

Configure Your Computer> Manage System Services by Enabling or Disabling Them

...by both starting numlock, and then checking "on boot".

Disabling Glitch-Free Mode (Mandriva 2011)

If your sound is choppy, distorted, or drops out when two or more programs are running at once, try disabling glitch-free mode (oh, the sweet irony!) by navigating to /etc/pulse/default.pa and, as root, adding tsched=0 to the end of the "load driver modules" commands. See below. (Bold text for illustrative purposes only.)

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-udev-detect.so
load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0
.else

Getting Real Player to Use Pulse Audio

Real Player does not have native pulseaudio compatibility; however, it's more than capable of handling Alsa streams. All we need to do is set Real Player to use Alsa.

To do this open Real Player, then Tools>Preferences>Hardware, select the Alsa driver, and edit the PCM device field to say "default" only. Restart Real Player.

Repairing Broken Window Manager (Mint 11)

This appears to be caused by a broken window manager. The top bar of the window vanishes, and your maximise, minimise, close window buttons with it. To fix, type in a terminal...

metacity --replace

Disabling Glitch-Free Mode (Mint 11)

If your sound is choppy, distorted, or drops out when two or more programs are running at once, try disabling glitch-free mode (oh, the sweet irony!) by navigating to /etc/pulse/default.pa and, as root, adding tsched=0 to the end of the "load driver modules" commands. See below. (Bold text for illustrative purposes only.)

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-hal-detect.so
load-module module-hal-detect tsched=0
.else

Removing Global Menu (Ubuntu 12.04)

To remove the global menu, either type...

 sudo apt-get autoremove appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt

... into a terminal, or remove "appmenu-gtk", "appmenu-gtk3" and "appmenu-qt" manually through the Software Centre.

N.B. To re-enable type into a terminal...

sudo apt-get install appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt

 Also disable the Global Menu Bar Integration  add-on in Firefox (Tools>Add-ons>Extensions.)

Pidgin System Tray Icon Not Showing Up (Ubuntu 11.04)

To solve the issue of the pidgin system tray icon not showing up in Natty, type into a terminal...

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"

Fixing Firefox 3.5.x Flash problem

To prevent the repo version of Firefox 3.5.x crashing on full screening flash content, change the start command to...

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libGL.so.1 firefox %u

Remove Orphaned Packages (Mandriva 2010)

urpme --auto-orphans