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Add Brightness Control to Elementary OS Panel with an Indicator

Last updated: September 13, 2013

If the brightness controls don’t works in your system or you’re not satisfied with the default Fn function key, here’s an app indicator allows to change screen brightness in all the possible brightness values. The applet works in Ubuntu and its derivatives, such as Linux Mint and Elementary OS Luna.

brightness control indicator

It’s useful for me because the Fn+Arrow key in my laptop only change the brightness in 4 levels (zero, one third, two-thirds, full).

Features:

  • Clicking the icon shows you all the possible brightness values, to a maximum of 15 steps.
  • The current value is indicated with a dot.
  • Clicking a menu item sets the brightness to the desired value.
  • Scroll wheel event is enabled on the icon. Scrolling up means higher brightness, scrolling down lower.
  • Control screen brightness with custom keyboard shortcuts.

    • Install Brightness Indicator:

    Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one to install the indicator from PPA:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:indicator-brightness/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install indicator-brightness

    Or you can download the .deb package and double-click to install it from Launchpad.net

    Once installed, open it from the app menu. Add these commands to your custom keyboard shortcuts to control brightness with your keyboard. You need Elementary Tweak to add a custom shortcut key.

    /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/indicator-brightness/indicator-brightness-adjust --up

    and:

    /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/indicator-brightness/indicator-brightness-adjust --down

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    How to Disable Mouse-over Tooltips in Ubuntu 13.04 / 13.10

    Last updated: September 12, 2013

    This simple tutorial will show you how to disable the mouse-over tooltip messages in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring and Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy using CCSM.

    It’s easy to do it using the CompizConfig Settings Manager by setting totally transparent tooltips. So that you can see them. NOTE: This method won’t work for the tooltips for Unity Launcher.

    To get started, install CCSM in Ubuntu Software Center. You don’t have to do something special, just search for and install CompizConfig Settings Manager. Then you can open it from Unity Dash.

    Open CCSM, click on ‘Opacity, Brightness and Saturation’ to go to its configuration page. Then enable this plugin, click new to add a rule, type in Tooltip and set the value to 0 and finally close it.

    That’s it. To restore, just remove the rule in the plugin’s configuration page. Enjoy!

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    How to Install HP Linux Printer Driver in Ubuntu 13.04/13.10

    Last updated: September 12, 2013

    Have a HP printer connected with your Ubuntu machine? Well, here’s how to install HP Linux Printer Driver in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Linux Mint and Elementary OS.

    HP Linux Printer Driver (HPLIP) is an HP developed solution for printing, scanning, and faxing with HP inkjet and laser based printers in Linux.

    The HPLIP project provides printing support for over 2,080 printer models–including; Deskjet, Officejet, Photosmart, PSC (Print, Scan, Copy), Business Inkjet, LaserJet, Edgeline MFP, and LaserJet MFP.

    The latest HPLIP 3.13.9 added Support for the Following New Printers:

    • HP Designjet Z5400 44-in PostScript ePrinter
    • HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 1018 Printer
    • HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 1518 All-in-One Printer
    • HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 2540 All-in-One Printer Series
    • HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 2545 All-in-One Printer
    • HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 2546 All-in-One Printer
    • HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 4515 e-All-in-One Printer
    • HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 4518 e-All-in-One Printer
    • HP Envy 4504 e-All-in-One
    • HP LaserJet Pro MFP M435nw
    • HP Officejet 4630 e-All-in-One
    • HP Officejet 4632 e-All-in-One Printer
    • HP Officejet 4635 e-All-in-One Printer
    • HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Premium e-AiO N911n
    • HP Photosmart 5521 e-All-in-One Printer

    Download & Install HP Linux Printer Driver

    Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to download hplip 3.13.9:

    cd ~/Downloads && wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/hplip/hplip-3.13.9.run

    Or you can check out the latest version on this page.

    Once downloaded, execute command to start the installation:

    sh ~/Downloads/hplip*.run

    Answer the questions and wait for the installing process. It’ll properly install & configure the driver for your printer. When done, you can open the HP device manager from the panel indicator. Enjoy!

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    WireShark 1.10.2 Released, Install it in Ubuntu and Linux Mint

    Last updated: December 6, 2013

    As you may know, WireShark is a network ‘sniffer’ that captures and analyzes packages off the wire. It’s available in Ubuntu Software Center, but it’s a little old. The latest version has reached 1.10.2 and this tutorial will show you how to install it in Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux Mint.

    WireShark 1.10.2 updated the following protocols: ASSA R3, ASN.1 PER, Bluetooth HCI ACL, GTPv2, EtherCAT AMS, HTTP, IEEE 802.11, ISDN SUP, IPFIX, LDAP, NBAP, MQ, Novell SSS, Radiotap, PROFINET MRP, ROHC, SCSI, SIP, STP, and RTPS. Support for pcap-ng and Microsoft Network Monitor was also updated. Moreover, lots of vulnerabilities have been fixed and numerous bugs have been squashed. See the announcement

    Install WireShark 1.10.2:

    For Ubuntu 12.04 Precise:

    Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to add the PPA:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:whoopie79/ppa

    Update and install wireshark:

    sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install wireshark

    For Ubuntu 13.04 Raring:

    Run commands below one by one:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/programs-ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wireshark

    For Ubuntu 13.10 and higher, install it from Ubuntu Software Center after checking for updates.

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    How to Change Nautilus Background Color in Ubuntu 13.04

    Last updated: September 12, 2013

    This simple tutorial shows you how to change the Nautilus file browser and other apps’ background & selected color if you’re boring with the default colors in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring.

    It can be easily done in Nautilus 3.4.x and 3.6.x via Dconf Editor. So this tutorial will also work for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal and Ubuntu 12.04 Precise.

    In the screenshots below, I changed the background color to sky blue and selected color to black.

    To do it, open Dconf Editor from Unity Dash. Navigate to org/gnome/desktop/interface, add or change the value of gtk-color-scheme. So that you can change the background color, tooltips color, text color, etc.

    bg_color:#C4E5F6;selected_bg_color:#000000;base_color:#888888;tooltip_fg_color:#ffffff;tooltip_bg_color:#ffffff;text_color:#000000

    To restore, just remove what you added. Enjoy!

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    How to Install xVideoServiceThief 2.5 in Ubuntu 12.04 / 13.10

    Last updated: April 4, 2019

    This tutorial shows how to install the latest xVideoServiceThief 2.5 in Ubuntu 12.04 (fix dependencies), Ubuntu 13.10, Linux Mint, Elementary OS Luna.

    As you may know, xVideoServiceThief is the tool for downloading video clips from Google Video, Youtube, etc.(currently supports 93 websites and increasing) and allows to convert each video in most popular formats: AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, MP4, 3GP, MP3 file formats.

    You can easily install this tool in Ubuntu based systems using the GetDeb repository. But the latest version (so far, it is 2.5) is only available for Ubuntu 13.04 Raring because it depends on the qt5 based libraries. So here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise and its derivatives. Also works in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal.

    Install Qt 5 modules in Ubuntu 12.04

    The Ubuntu SDK Team PPA contains Qt 5 based libraries for Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 12.10. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands to add the PPA:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-sdk-team/ppa

    Then update system package lists:

    sudo apt-get update

    The command in next step will automatically install the required packages from this PPA. After that, you can disable / remove this ppa from Software & Updates or Software Sources -> Other Software tab.

    Download & Install xVideoServiceThief 2.5

    First download the Debs from the below links. You may check OS type 32-bit or 64-bit by System Settings -> Details.

    Download xVideoServiceThief 2.5 32-bit | 64-bit

    Then run below commands in terminal to install it as well as the dependencies:

    sudo dpkg -i xvst_2.5-1~getdeb2_*.deb; sudo apt-get -f install

    That’s it. Enjoy!

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    Block Access to Unwanted Websites in Ubuntu 13.10/13.04/Linux Mint

    Last updated: September 10, 2013

    Want to block access to certain websites from your machine running Ubuntu or Linux Mint? It’s easy to do it by editing the host file.

    With the hosts file, you can tell Ubuntu to redirect the specific websites to 127.0.0.1. So that the web browser returns below error:

    To do so, edit the /etc/hosts with your favorite editor. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to edit the hosts via gedit:

    sudo gedit /etc/hosts

    Add below lines to the end of the file. Exclude the “http://” and change the domain names.

    # block access to certain sites
    127.0.0.1 www.websites1.com
    127.0.0.1 www.websites2.com
    127.0.0.1 websites3.com
    127.0.0.1 morewebsites.com

    Save the file and re-launch your web browser. Done.

    In modify ubuntu , ,
     

    How to Easily Create Desktop Slideshow in Ubuntu via Pictoric

    Last updated: September 10, 2013

    Pictoric is a simple utility for Ubuntu Unity to create a desktop slideshow out of the directory of your choice that contains either .jpg/.jpeg or .png files for a given time interval that you choose. Your desktop slideshow will then be initiated and saved to be ready to go for subsequent logins.

    Just simple and efficient! To install it in Ubuntu, download and double-click to install the DEB via pop-up Ubuntu Software Center.

    Download Pictoric in Launchpad

    You can also install this app from the PPA. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then run below commands one by one:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:glacier-apps/pictoric
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pictoric

    Once installed, you can open it from Unity Dash or in System Settings window.

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    Install HexChat via PPA in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy

    Last updated: September 10, 2013

    HexChat is an IRC client based on XChat, but unlike XChat it’s completely free for both Windows and Unix-like systems. HexChat was originally called XChat-WDK which in turn was a successor of freakschat.

    Features:

    • Easy to use and customizable interface
    • Cross-platform on Windows and Unix-like OSes
    • Highly scriptable with Python and Perl
    • Translated in multiple languages
    • Fully open source and actively developed
    • Multi-network with auto-connect, join, and identify
    • Spellcheck, Proxies, SASL, DCC support and more

    Here’s how to install HexChat via PPA in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives such as Linux Mint and Elementary OS.

    Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open temrinal. When it opens, run below commands to add the ppa:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/hexchat-stable

    Then update system package lists and install the IRC Client:

    sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install hexchat

    Once installed, open hexchat from unity dash home.

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    Audacity 2.0.4 Released, Install / Upgrade in Ubuntu 13.04, 12.04

    Last updated: September 9, 2013

    The Audacity audio editor & recorder has reached version 2.0.4. Here’s how to install or upgrade it via PPA in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Linux Mint and Elementary OS.

    Audacity 2.0.4 replaces all previous versions, with these improvements:

    • New Effect > Reverb (based on Freeverb), that replaces GVerb.
    • New View > Go to Selection Start and Go to Selection End commands.
    • New Tracks > Align End to End command to append selected tracks.
    • WAV files import/export now supports “Album Title”, “Track Number” and “Genre” LIST INFO tags and ID3 tags.
    • (Windows) New support for Windows WDM/KS host which can provide very low latencies if you reduce “Audio to Buffer” in Recording Preferences.
    • (Windows Vista and later) You can now record computer playback by choosing the new Windows WASAPI host in Device Toolbar, then a “loopback” input.
    • Bugs have been fixed, involving Keyboard Preferences, Equalization curves, and Effect > Change Pitch, and several more.

    Install Audacity 2.0.4

    The Audacity team PPA has reached to 2.0.5 alpha. So here I use Nate Muench’s PPA.

    Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:

    For Ubuntu 13.04 and its derivatives:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install audacity

    For Ubuntu 12.04 and its derivatives:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc2

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install audacity

    For source code and other systems, go to this page.

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