Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pidgin -- God's own chat engine

Pidgin comes as default chat engine with Ubuntu but there are certain problems which I found while using it so here are the Tips & Tricks --

1]Yahoo don't work with pidgin This is because jaunty comes with an outdated version of pidgin & you have to install the new version for it.The easiest way to do this is use Pidgin PPA (so that updates of pidgin would be available directly from update manager).To setup PPA (and eventually enable automatic update), just copy & paste the code available at http://www.pidgin.im/download/ubuntu/ onto the terminal.

2]Enable Water repel notification:- This one is really nice trick & you will have water repels on the corner of your desktop instead of that annoying 'ding' when someone PMs you.This one is a little bit techie but it is worth the effort.You must have Compiz-Fusion installed and running. 2. You must be using a graphics card that supports the 'Water' effect. 3. You must have said water effect and the DBUS plugins enabled in the Compiz Configuration Manage


a)copy the following code to a new file & rename it to waterping.sh

#!/bin/bash
#./waterping.sh 0 0
#If you want to ping the coordinates x0, y0
dbus-send --type=method_call --dest=org.freedesktop.compiz /org/freedesktop/compiz/water/allscreens/point org.freedesktop.compiz.activate string:'root' int32:`xwininfo -root | grep id: | awk '{ print $4 }'` string:'amplitude' double:1 string:'x' int32:$1 string:'y' int32:$2

b)copy the following code to a new file & rename it to senicon.sh

#!/bin/bash
#requires waterping.sh
WINFO=`xwininfo -root -tree | egrep ' (1[2-9]|2[0-4])x(1[2-9]|2[0-4])\+0\+0' | grep "$1" | cut -d ')' -f 2-`
WIW=`echo $WINFO | cut -d 'x' -f 1`
WIH=`echo $WINFO | cut -d 'x' -f 2 | cut -d '+' -f 1`
WIX=`echo $WINFO | cut -d '+' -f 4`
WIY=`echo $WINFO | cut -d '+' -f 5`
let WAX=WIX+WIW/2
let WAY=WIY+WIH/2
waterping.sh $WAX $WAY 2>/dev/null

B. As root, copy each of the scripts to "/usr/local/bin/" Then, open a root terminal and execute the following two lines:
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/waterping.sh
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/senicon.sh

C. Configure Pidgin.
Startup Pidgin; go into the Preferences manager. Under the 'Sounds' tab set the method to 'Command' and type in: "senicon.sh pidgin" (without the quotes.)

Note: credit for this script goes to "cmost" of linuxmint forums

Friday, October 9, 2009

Fun with Compiz

I am posting here a video of what my desktop looks like. This is my first video demonstrating the fun part of Ubuntu & I am really sorry as the video is very dizzy as it was too much to ask from my graphics card. I have removed the Gnome window list & replaced it with Window screenlet. On the top you can see the Gnome - Do dock while at the bottom I have placed Cairo Dock. For Window switching instead of traditional ALT + TAB i am using compiz SCALE window picker with transparent window on losing attention.




Ubuntu Essentials

This is the list of essential softwares & packages you should have with Linux to fully enjoy the experience, of course this is what i feel & you can always suggest me to improve my list. In my further posts i'll try to write about these packages in detail

Let us start with the fun part of ubuntu which i like the most --

1]. Compiz Config settings manager -- This is the most common utility to decorate your desktop , give animation to you windows (please pardon me for my use of the word "Windows"). But i still wonder why Compiz manager does not comes with Ubuntu as a default package you need to download it.

2].Emerald Theme manager -- It gives the X effect to your PC.

3].Cairo Dock -- It my personal favorite Dock available for Linux with lots of cool applets.

4].Virtual Box -- In case you want to quickly use Windows or other distros of Linux.

5].Gnome Do -- Quickly organizes your most used applications on the Dock.

6]. Google Chrome -- Fast and my favorite browser . I'll later post how to install it & enable plugins for it.

7]. VLC media player -- Totem is good but VLC is the best.

Other packages are Ubuntu tweak , Clam Anti Virus (clamav) , Screenlates ....and the list goes on ..

How many do you have ????

My first Blog

Hi friends this is my first blog. From that past few months I have been playing with Ubuntu. I am no expert in Ubuntu or Linux neither you will find any technical stuff here. I have created this blog just to share with everyone my Ubuntu Experience....
So BAKWAS BAND AUR KAAM SHURU ....