How to minimize all windows in Gnome 3

Thanks God it's possible to assign a shortcut to minimize all open application windows in Gnome 3.

Here is how:

System Settings ->  Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Navigation.
Find "Hide all normal windows" and assign a key to minimize all the windows.

Things to do on OpenSuse 12.2 LXDE

1) Update the system as always :)

2) Add a keyboard layout switcher to the panel and support for another layout (if needed) as described here, for example.

3) Okay, it's handy to have numLock on at system start-up on LXDE. Below is
How to turn numlock on at system startup LXDE:

As a superuser edit the file /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf
Find the line:

numlock=0

Uncomment it (remove the # sign) and change 0 to 1. Logout, login. Numlock should be on at system startup now.

4) Ok, I remember this bothered me about YaST since OpenSuse 11 - the package manager closes itself   after a package is installed. If you want to install another batch of packages after a 1st one, you need to relaunch the package manager. Here is how to prevent it from closing: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/SUSE%20Misc/yast-at-close-action.jpeg
https://features.opensuse.org/312750

5) One bad thing about LXDE on OpenSuse 12.2 - on my system if I click "logout", nothing happens, the system hangs up. Hopefully, this will get fixed.

6) You need a screenshot app (would you believe print screen launches some Paint like app to save the snapshot? It does!). I installed Shutter (I'd prefer to have a simpler one, though).

7) Can you believe you have no archiving tool on Opensuse 12.2 LXDE? At least a GUI one? Well, at the very least there was no working one. Installed xarchiver from some repo (packages.opensuse.org)

8) LibreOffice failed to start, returning this error when launched from terminal:

[Java framework] Error in function createSettingsDocument (elements.cxx).
javaldx failed!

The solution is to change ownership to your user over the folder /home/username/.config:

su chown -vR username:users ~/.config

9) Installed MS fonts by using this package - fetchmsttfonts. It does what it says - fetches the fonts from a source outside the repos.

10) http://stray-notes.blogspot.com/2011/01/lxde-remap-keyboard-shortcuts.html - this post explains how to set keyboard shortcuts on LXDE. I would like to have ctrl+alt+T back for terminal, and ctrl+escape for a system monitor app.

After installing the MS fonts, the system fonts got ugly. Yes, it's now typical OpenSuse. The fonts in QT apps look too small (e.g. skype).

The good thing about OpenSuse 12.2 LXDE is that it features a customized sound control app (which is not present on a vanilla LXDE install) which works with the multimedia keys on the keyboard out of the box.

KDE theme gets too dark with desktop effects disabled

I am really happy about KDE's default theme - Air. It looks fine for me, and I don't want to change it.

I also never have desktop effects enabled on KDE (and on any DE) as I never need it. However, every time I disable the desktop effects on my KDE system, I notice that the Air theme gets too dark which is unpleasant, unaesthetic and simply makes the letters on, say, the Task Manager hardly discernible.

I really wanted to get the light grey color of the theme back. So I've notice the following manipulation usually helps get the theme back to being light-color:

System settings -> Desktop effects -> Advanced - then switch between the Compositing types and QT graphics systems until you notice your Air theme stops being dark and gets light-grey.

The behavior of those settings is a bit unpredictable for me, as various options have brought in the same result (right now I use OpenGL / Native, and I have the light theme, but I remember I've used other options in the Advanced tab on my other KDE installations before to get the theme light). Anyway, the good thing is that switching between those options does work.

Sabayon Linux - to choose or not to choose

Sabayon Linux is one of my favorite Linux distros. It is based on Gentoo, but this fact is of little importance for me personally.

I decided to make a summary of why I like Sabayon, and what I dislike about it, or in other words, to list  what are the pros and cons of Sabayon Linux for me. This is just a subjective opinion.

Sabayon: To choose or not to choose:

Pros

Cons

• Rolling release. Rolls stably. • Multimedia codecs installed out of the box • Proprietary graphics drivers installed out of the box • Latest software, latest DEs versions • GUI package manager, powerful command line package management utility • Restricted software available in the repo (Flash, Oracle Java, proprietory Virtualbox, Opera), no unnecessary philosophy • Large repository • Relatively light on resources, not bloated,  fast and responsive • Binary distro - apps are quickly installed • Source-based distro - compile if you like • Uses the Anaconda installer, easy to deploy • Generally, sufficiently user-friendly

• Little customisation, vanilla DEs • Rather poor artwork • Lack of polish (it’s your duty to make sure GTK apps look acceptably on KDE, or that you use the same cursor theme both for welcome screen and after logged in; etc.) • Corrupt packages in the repo on rare occasions • Apps may behave not as expected or feature non-optimal default settings (e.g., winFF won’t just work and convert videos, the user’s intervenience is needed to configure the app) • Latest software, less testing, bugs may occur (e.g. on Sabayon you’ll be one of the first to find out Clementine’s multimedia keys support is broken in a new version)

For me, the pros outweigh the cons. What really makes me addicted to Sabayon is that I have the latest software, easily, with no fuss, and little effort.

Probably, I need to try Arch, another prominent rolling distro, to be able to truly appreciate Sabayon. Something tells me, though, Arch would consume more time on system configuration while Sabayon doesn't, it just ships the latest software to you in a couple of clicks.

How to ungroup conversation tabs skype 4 linux

The conversation tabs in Skype 4 for Linux may be not what you want. For example, if you communicate to different people in different languages, you'll have to annoyingly change the layout while your DE supports different layouts for different windows (this is how I use it and I find this layout switching policy really convenient). In this case you'd prefer Skype to start a conversation with a new person in a separate window (like it was in the old Skype 2 version).

To ungroup conversation tabs in Skype 4 on Linux and switch back to the separate window per conversation style:
- click "Options" in Skype 4
- go to "Chat" settings
- uncheck "Use default view".

That's it. Now you'll have the old good style of different chat in separate windows.
By the way, the icon in the top right corner of the conversation window toggles showing the contacts that are currently in chat.

Illegal source level jdk 7 - Linux Mint 13

You try to compile a Java program and Netbeans gives you the error:

Illegal source level jdk 7

You get this because you have the OpenJDK version installed while the program you're trying to compile requires Oracle Java. Mint/Ubuntu cannot ship Oracle's Java due to some laws and licences.

However, if you do need the original Oracle Java to develop your Java apps, you can have it in 2 ways:
- by installing Oracle Java on your system yourself - see how here: http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Oracle-Java-on-Ubuntu-Linux (24 steps).

- or by using a PPA which will kindly and easily get Oracle Java into your system.


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

This should get you the Oracle's version. To check, type:
java -version

You're supposed to see something like:
java version "1.7.0_05"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_05-b05)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.1-b03, mixed mode)


Happy Java coding.

How to change DuckDuckGo for another search engine in Mint

Linux Mint ships Firefox with the DuckDuckGo search engine/provider that's used if you type your search terms directly in the address bar (the most convenient way probably).

DuckDuckGo might be good, but it at least looks intolerably ugly and urges a strong desire to remove it.
Here is how to change DuckDuckGo for another search engine from address/URL bar in Firefox on Linux Mint version 12, 13, probably 14 and 15 :) :

type about:config in the address bar of Firefox
promise you'll be careful
in the search bar type keyword.URL
right click on it - modify
replace the string with the DuckDuckGo for another URL that will query another search engine.

If you want to continue supporting Mint, place the Yahoo's URL and use Yahoo search (the example below will use USA Yahoo in English):
http://us.yhs4.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=

Or you can use the dominant and not sharing revenues with Mint Google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=