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How to Enable Minimize button in Elementary OS 7 App Windows

Last updated: February 1, 2023 — 2 Comments

Elementary OS 7 is finally released! Here’s how to enable the “Minimize” title-bar button in its app windows.

Elementary OS 7 is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. It was released on Tuesday with many improvements on its core applications as well as desktop experience.

Like Fedora workstation, this Linux Distro does not has a ‘Minimize’ button out-of-the-box. But changing the button-layout key via either dconf-editor or gsettings does not function.

Step 1: Install Pantheon Tweaks

Pantheon Tweaks is simple configuration tool adds more options to configure Elementary OS’ Pantheon desktop appearance.

1. First, search for and open a terminal window from top-left ‘Application’ menu.

2. When terminal opens, run command to install the package for the ability to add PPA repositories:

sudo apt install software-properties-common

Run sudo apt update first on a fresh OS to update package index.

3. Next, run command to add the Ubuntu PPA that contains the Pantheon Tweaks package:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:philip.scott/pantheon-tweaks

4. After adding PPA, install the tool by running command:

sudo apt install pantheon-tweaks

Step 2: Enable Minimize button

After installing Pantheon Tweaks, open or re-open System Settings from the bottom dock launcher. When it opens, you’ll see a new “Tweaks” option under ‘Personal’.

Click on it to open the settings page. There’s a drop-down box for selecting layout of “Window Controls”. Just choose Windows, Ubuntu, macOS, add minimize, or whatever option that you prefer.

The title-bar button layout will change immediately! Done.

In Howtos Elementary OS

Add ‘Open File/Folder as Root / Administrator’ in Elementary OS 6 [Update 2021]

Last updated: September 4, 2021

This is a step by step tutorial shows how to add “open as root (or administrator)” option in Pantheon file browser in Elementary OS 6 Odin.

Elementary OS now is at version 6.0 based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those looking for the “Open as Administrator” function to open system file via root user permission, or do copy & paste things outside of user’s home directory, things have changed.

The executable command for the file manager now is io.elementary.files, and the command to start text editor is io.elementary.code. Both are named in Flatpak app style. Gksu has gnone, and “pkexec” takes the place to allow an authorized user to execute program as root.

Add Open as Admin action in Elementary OS 6:

1. ) Firstly, search for and open “terminal” from the top-left corner Applications menu.

2. When terminal opens, run command to create (& edit via nano) the configuration file for option to edit file as root user privilege:

sudo nano /usr/share/contractor/io.elementary.code.open-as-root.contract

When the file opens in terminal, paste following lines and save via Ctrl+X, type y and hit Enter.

[Contractor Entry]
Name=Edit as Administrator
Icon=io.elementary.code
Description=Edit file via root user privilege
MimeType=text/plain;
Exec=pkexec io.elementary.code %U
Gettext-Domain=code

3. And create another config file for an option to open folder as root permission:

sudo nano /usr/share/contractor/io.elementary.files.open-as-root.contract

Then paste the following lines and save it (Ctrl+X, type y, and hit Enter):

[Contractor Entry]
Name=Open as Administrator
Icon=system-file-manager
Description=Open a folder via root user privilege
MimeType=inode/directory;
Exec=pkexec io.elementary.files %U
Gettext-Domain=file manager

After creating the two files, “Edit as Administrator” and “Open as Administrator” context menu option appear when right-clicking a file or folder immediately without restart.

As you see, you can create more actions by creating files with “.contract” extension under /usr/share/contractor directory. The name will be displayed as menu option, and you can find value of icon, MineType and Exec by checking the app shortcut file (.desktop) under /usr/share/applications directory.

That’s all. Enjoy!

In Howtos Elementary OS, open as root

Elementary OS 0.4 Loki Released, Based on Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: September 10, 2016

The best-looking Linux distro, Elementary OS, has reached the 0.4 release, code name “Loki” and base on Ubuntu 16.04 package system.

The Elementary OS team announced the stable release of Loki last night:

After a little over a year of development, elementary is proud to announce the stable release of elementary OS Loki!

Loki is the newest version of elementary OS, a design-oriented and open source Linux-based operating system for desktops and laptops. It succeeds Freya which was released in April of 2015.

…

What’s new in Elementary OS Loki:

Linux Kernel 4.4 and Ubuntu 16.04 base
redesigned indicators change to be dark or light depending on your wallpaper.
redesigned audio indicator with more compact set of controls and large icons
new network indicator and redesigned network settings, bluetooth indicator
A new lid close setting and related behavior
Notification center now caches notifications and offers Do Not Disturb toggle
use Epiphany as new default web browser.
new app store
various other improvements, see the release note.

Download Elementary OS Loki at: elementary.io. (pay any dollar amount, or type 0 for free)

In News Elementary OS, Loki, Ubuntu 16.04

How to Upload images to Imgur via Elementary OS File Browser

Last updated: August 1, 2015

This tutorial shows how to upload your images to Imgur hosting service easily through files’ right-click context menu in Elementary OS Freya and share the image link with your friends.

Thanks to Stefan Ric (cybre) who wrote a plugin for Pantheon file browser to make uploading to Imgur easier in Elementary OS.

All you need to do is right click on your image file or files and select Upload to Imgur option. After that, system notifications pop up with uploading process:

Once done, it prompts that the image link has been copied to your clipboard.

To install Imgur uploader plugin:

Just open terminal from the application launcher and run below commands one by one to install it from developer’s PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cybre/imgurcontract

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install imgur-contract

For those who don’t want to add PPA, download and install the package “imgur-contract_xxx~ubuntu14.04.x_all.deb” for Freya directly from link below:

Imgur Uploader Plugin for Pantheon

In Howtos Elementary OS

Install the Official Elementary Music Player in Ubuntu 15.04, 15.10

Last updated: June 21, 2015

Noise, the official music player of Elementary OS, is a fast and beautiful GTK3 audio player with a focus on music and libraries. It handles external devices, CDs, and album art. Noise utilizes Granite for a consistent and slick UI.

Elementary OS Team has created a few PPAs on launchpad.net so users can easily install and test some Elementary applications on Ubuntu desktop. And here’s how to install Noise music player in Ubuntu 15.04, or Ubuntu 15.10.

Noise in Ubuntu 15.04

1. Open terminal from the Dash, App Launcher, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the Elementary OS daily ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:elementary-os/daily

2. After adding the PPA, refresh your system repository cache and install the music player via 2 commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install noise

3. Finally, you have to remove the PPA since it contains some unstable and EOS only applications. To do so, run:

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:elementary-os/daily && sudo apt-get update

4. (Optional) If you want to remove this music player, simply run:

sudo apt-get remove noise

Tip: Due to a bug related to the Unity overlay scrollbars, there’s a background issue which can be fixed by running below command to edit the launcher file of Noise:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/noise.desktop

Install gksu from Software Center if the command doesn’t work. When the file opens, change the value of Exec to env LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0 noise %U so it look likes:

That’s it.

In Howtos Elementary OS, Noise music player

Double-Click to open a File/Folder in Elementary OS Freya

Last updated: April 23, 2015

The default file browser in Elementary OS Freya uses single-click to open files and folders, though there’s no option to change this preference.

For those who would like to use double-click to open an item in the file browser, there’s a graphical configuration tool called Elementary Tweaks that may help.

1. Install Elementary Tweaks in Freya

The developer is maintaining a PPA with the latest packages for this tool.

Though the 14.04 build is failed at the moment of writing this tutorial, we can download an earlier version at PPA’s ftp download page:

Download Elementary Tweaks (.DEB)

Depends on your OS type, select download:

For 64-bit eOS Freya, download:
- elementary-tweaks-dbg_x.x.x~ubuntu14.04.1_amd64.deb
- elementary-tweaks_x.x.x~ubuntu14.04.1_amd64.deb
For 32-bit eOS Freya, download:
- elementary-tweaks-dbg_x.x.x~ubuntu14.04.1_i386.deb
- elementary-tweaks_x.x.x~ubuntu14.04.1_i386.deb

Then install them one by one, in below order, by opening the .deb package with Software Center:

elementary-tweaks_x.x.x~ubuntu14.04.1_i386/amd64.deb
elementary-tweaks-dbg_x.x.x~ubuntu14.04.1_i386/amd64.deb

2. Disable single-click and enable double-click

After installing Elementary Tweaks, open System Settings from the dock at the bottom of your screen and then click the Tweaks icon.

In the next page, select Files from left pane, and finally disable Single Click by clicking the toggle.

In Howtos double click to open file folder, Elementary OS

Install Twitter Client ‘Corebird’ 1.0 in Elementary OS Freya

Last updated: April 21, 2015

Since Elementary OS Freya comes with GTK+ 3.14, it’s able to install the latest Corebird 1.0, a modern, easy and fun Twitter client.

For those who never heard of Corebird, it is a native Gtk+ Twitter client for Linux, which supports keyboard shortcuts, image and video preview. It is one of the few remaining desktop Linux Twitter apps still in active development.

Install Corebird 1.0 in eOS Freya:

1. Depends on your OS type, 32-bit (i386) or 64-bit (amd64), select download the “corebird_1.1~really1.0+xxx_i386/amd64.deb” package from launchpad page:

Download Corebird DEB

2. Open terminal from the Application launcher. Run below command to refresh system package cache:

sudo apt-get update

3. Finally open the downloaded package and click install. Or install it via dpkg command in terminal:

cd ~/Downloads; sudo dpkg -i corebird_*.deb; sudo apt-get -f install

In Howtos corebird, Elementary OS, twitter client

Elementary OS Freya (Stable) Available for Download

Last updated: April 11, 2015

Elementary OS 0.3 Freya is out! The beautiful desktop Linux distribution is now based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, uses GTK+ 3.14 and supports UEFI.

After a few days of countdown in Elementary website, the developer team finally announced the release of Elementary OS 0.3 Freya, via a Live Youtube video. Here are some of the great new features in the Elementary OS 0.3:

Linux Kernel 3.16.
GTK+ 3.14, which will be default in Ubuntu 15.04 (Ubuntu 14.04 comes with GTK 3.10)
new, unified, app-focused design
Math calculations and Quicklist support in Application Launcher
Vala 0.26 and UEFI support.

See the video for more:

Download Elementary OS Freya:

Download Elementary OS Freya ISO

In News Elementary OS

Take screenshot of Login Screen in Ubuntu, Elementary & Pear OS

Last updated: November 10, 2013

This simple tutorial shows you how to capture screenshot of the LightDM / GDM login screen in Ubuntu, Elementary OS, or Pear OS.

Besides installing your system as Virtualbox or Vmware Guest OS, we can follow the steps below to capture and share our login screens.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command blow to check out your display manager:

cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager

handbook@handbook-1310:~$ cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager 
/usr/sbin/lightdm

By default:

Ubuntu Unity and Elementary OS Luna uses LightDM
Pear OS 8 and Ubuntu Gnome uses GDM

2. Check out the value of $DISPLAY:

echo $DISPLAY

handbook@handbook-1310:~$ echo $DISPLAY
:0

3. Now create a simple script

echo 'sleep 20; DISPLAY=:0 XAUTHORITY=/var/run/lightdm/root/$DISPLAY xwd -root' > /tmp/shot.sh

You may change:

20 : the seconds of delay.
:0 : the value of $DISPLAY. In my Pear OS 8, the value of $DISPLAY changes every login ($DISPLAY=$DISPAY +1).
lightdm : the display manager.

4. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 and log into TTY1.

5. Run command below to start the script:

sudo bash /tmp/shot.sh >/tmp/shot.xwd

6. Return to GUI mode by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1.

7. Logout by normal way. While you can see login screen, wait for some seconds.

8. Login by normal way. Install imagemagick if you don’t have it installed yet.

sudo apt-get install -y imagemagick

9. Run command below and finally you can check out the image under user Pictures folder.

convert /tmp/shot.xwd ~/Pictures/loginscreen.png

In Howtos Elementary OS, GDM, lightdm, Pear OS 8

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