Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Tweak the Unity Desktop Among the first things you'll want to do is restore some lost functionality now that Appearance Properties has been dropped in Ubuntu 11.10 and the System Settings doesn't support changing the icon theme! The Gnome Tweak-UI Tool has dependencies on some Gnome Shell-related libraries which makes installing and running under Unity messy. Instead, I'm trying dconf-editor (a part of dconf-tools) as a tool to adjust Ubuntu configuration settings. I'm still asking why I need resort to an extra utility to perform a simple task such as changing an icon theme!! Changing the icon theme in Dconf-editor (a graphical editor and part of the dconf-tools meta-meta-package) is simple enough: * Launch dconf-editor from a command line, search in the Dash or using the alt-f2 run line using dconf-editor * Select Org, Gnome, Desktop, Interface * Enter the name of your desired icon theme into the value field “icon-theme”. Type carefully and remember this is case-sensitive * If you don't know the exact name of your icon theme, navigate to /usr/share/icons where you can copy the Folder names of the icon sets you have installed.
Fignoler le bureau Ubuntu
C'est l'une des premières choses que vous allez vouloir faire, c'est de restaurer des fonctionnalités perdues maintenant qu'il n'y a plus d'« Apparence » dans les Préférences d'Ubuntu 11.10 et les Paramètres système ne prend pas en charge le changement du thème des icônes !
L'outil Gnome Tweak-UI (Gnome Tweak-UI Tool) a des dépendances sur des bibliothèques liées à Gnome Shell qui rend son installation et son exécution sous Unity compliquées.
À la place, j'essaie dconf-editor (compris dans dconf-tools) comme outil pour ajuster les paramètres configuration d'Ubuntu. Je me demande encore pourquoi il faut recourir à un utilitaire en plus pour faire quelque chose d'aussi simple que changer le thème des icônes !!
C'est assez simple de changer le thème des icônes dans Dconf-editor (un éditeur graphique faisant partie du paquet meta-meta dconf-tools) :
- Lancez dconf-editor en ligne de commande, recherchez-le dans le Dash ou faites alt-f2 et saisissez dconf-éditor dans la case « Run » (Exécuter…)
- Sélectionnez Org, Gnome, Desktop, Interface
- Tapez le nom exact du thème icônes voulu dans le champ « icon-theme ». Tapez avec soin et rappelez-vous qu'il faut respecter les majuscules et les minuscules
- Si vous ne connaissez pas le nom exact de votre thème icônes, naviguez jusqu'à /usr/share/icons où vous pouvez copier le nom des Dossiers des ensembles d'icônes qui sont installés.
Installing dconf-editor Search on dconf-editor in the Software Center or manually pull it in via the command line using: sudo apt-get install dconf-tools This is one of those power tools that will bring the house down if you're careless. Containing a wealth of settings, it's not always a mine of information, but then dconf-editor wasn't designed as an end-user tool. In the right pane, below each group of values, you will get some description of how it applies; even then, you have to know the possible range of values, such as the exact name of the icon set with spelling, case and punctuation. Use with caution.
Installer dconf-editor
Rechercher « dconf-editor » dans la Logithèque ou récupérez-le manuellement en ligne de commande avec :
sudo apt-get install dconf-tools
C'est l'un de ces outils puissants qui démolira tout si vous ne faites pas attention. Il contient un nombre incalculable de paramètres et il manque parfois de renseignements, mais, il est vrai, dconf-editor n'a pas été conçu comme outil pour l'utilisateur ordinaire. Dans la fenêtre de droite, en dessous de chaque groupe de valeurs, vous trouverez une petite description sur comment cela fonctionne ; et même dans ce cas-là, vous devez connaître la fourchette possible des valeurs, telle que le nom exact de l'ensemble d'icônes avec son orthographe, la casse et la ponctuation. La prudence est de mise.
White List Applications
Many of your old familiar programs no longer show up in the new “indicator” area; unless you fool it. Some systray icons for QT-based programs such as Skype and VLC are automatically converted into indicators by sni-qt. Wine, Java, scp-dbus-service and the Update-notifier are white-listed by Ubuntu, but you can white-list all applications.
In dconf-editor, navigate to desktop > unity > panel
And to get the equivalent of the Systray in the Notification Area for all applications, change the default list to [‘all’]. Or you can add program names individually, in single-quotes, comma-separated, for example 'Wine', 'Skype' etc.
To reset, use the default reset list; the value is shown in the editor itself ['JavaEmbeddedFrame', 'Wine', 'scp-dbus-service', 'Update-notifier'] or click on “Set to default”.
Create a Desktop Shortcut
Thanks to the changes effected by the adoption of GNOME-3 and the Unity interface, adding a desktop shortcut to Ubuntu 11.10 is no longer easy. The old right-click on the desktop, selecting “Create Launcher” no longer works.
However, having some extra icons for your most frequently used programs right there on your desktop may eliminate some of that darting around the Unity Dash. Here's how.
You can create a custom launcher on the desktop, by invoking the Create Launcher dialog using the terminal command:
gnome-desktop-item-edit –create-new ~/Desktop
This one doesn't always work if invoked from the 'run' line opened by the Alt-f2 key combination.
The New Launcher window opens for you to create the launcher command.
The new shortcut will now appear on your desktop as soon as you save it. You need to specify the executable name, which has to be in an executable path, in order for GNOME-Shell underneath Unity to run it.
Bring Back GNOME-Search
My most useful utility is the faithful GNOME- Search tool. With this you can search for any files in any or all locations. It's more powerful than the basic search in the Unity Dash, able to add multiple lines of search criteria.
You can pin this in Unity's Launcher, but I've also created a desktop short-cut as per our article on page 10.
Disable 'For Download' in the Unity Dash
Another 'Marmite' design choice (you'll love it or hate it, indifference is not an option) in the Ubuntu Unity Dash; head for Applications and an entire chunk of the Dash is taken up with “Applications for Download” with a selection taken from the Ubuntu Software Center.
It would be a great idea if it ever suggested anything useful (to me, anyway), but instead it just eats up space in the Dash I could use for other things. Like seeing the stack of favorite programs I already installed, thank you.
In Ubuntu 11.10, this “Applications for Download” section in the Dash can be disabled.
In the dconf-editor (see previous page), navigate to desktop > Unity > Lenses > Applications and uncheck the ‘display-available-apps’ box, which is enabled by default.
You will get a whole line of extra space in the Dash from the next time you login.
Add Places as Quick-lists in Unity
Quick-lists in various desktop environments are equally regarded as a compromise of standards as they are usability or ergonomic aids.
Quick-lists are not included as a standard feature in Ubuntu 11.10. However, you can add your profile's Places as Quick-lists.
First, copy the current 'Home Folder' launcher file to your home directory. The quickest and easiest way is through the command line - in a terminal, (Unity Shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T) you can copy-paste the following:
cp /usr/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
Edit this using a text editor, for example, Gedit:
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop
You can safely replace the contents of the file with the text below:
[Desktop Entry] Name=Home Folder Comment=Open your personal folder TryExec=nautilus Exec=nautilus –no-desktop Icon=user-home Terminal=false StartupNotify=true Type=Application Categories=GNOME;GTK;Core; OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity; X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Videos;Documents;Music;Pictures;Downloads [Videos Shortcut Group] Name=Videos Exec=nautilus Videos TargetEnvironment=Unity [Documents Shortcut Group] Name=Documents Exec=nautilus Documents TargetEnvironment=Unity [Music Shortcut Group] Name=Music Exec=nautilus Music TargetEnvironment=Unity [Pictures Shortcut Group] Name=Pictures Exec=nautilus Pictures TargetEnvironment=Unity [Downloads Shortcut Group] Name=Downloads Exec=nautilus Downloads TargetEnvironment=Unity
Save the file.
Restart Unity. Opening a terminal to run unity –replace
is unsafe in my 11.10 instances as Unity hangs so badly, so I log out and log back in to restart Unity.
Disable Overlay Scrollbars
Ever since they arrived in the test versions of 11.04, I've hated the new Overlay Scrollbars in Ubuntu.
Yes, it may save on-screen real estate BUT:
- I've now got a much smaller target to hit just to get the overlay control to appear
- I have to move the mouse again most times to get the pointer onto the sweet spot to drag
- Miss that, then it disappears and I've got to mouse about to get it to appear again
- I can only hot-spot on the colored portion of the scrollbar, so much narrower than the traditional scrollbar.
In theory, overlay scrollbars are a brilliant space saver. In practice, they are an insane idea that drives me crazy AND drives a coach and horses through common-sense accessibility!
Here's how to disable the overlay scrollbars in Ubuntu 11.10 if you can handle the following commands:
sudo su
echo “export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0” > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars
Then restart your x-server (re-boot if you don't trust the command line again).
If this solution doesn't work, you can alternatively remove the overlay scrollbars packages which will eradicate all trace of them (so any other users of your machine will lose them permanently too):
sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar-0.1-0
Stop Zeitgeist Displaying Everything in the Dash
Zeitgeist is the event logging tool built into Ubuntu; it provides the engine for much of the user search capabilities and results for things like the Dash. You may think it's a marvel or the biggest source of embarrassment, depending on who's looking over your shoulder.
Activity Log Manager for Zeitgeist is available through the Software Center and provides a little more control.
You can use the 'Files' tab to blacklist the folders where you keep private files.
You can also completely disable Zeitgeist by unchecking the 'Logging active' button at the bottom; this will blackout all file searches in the Dash, so the first method, blacklisting only certain folders or applications, may be of more benefit. This application will also clear the Zeitgeist history and, by extension, the Dash history along with it.
Bypass Software Center to Force Package Installs
Sometimes, Ubuntu Software Center won't let you install some program or other, displaying the error: “The package is of bad quality.”
While this may be true and sound advice, this doesn't help when the package in question belongs to one of your indispensable programs.
You can bypass Software Center and force the install of a .deb package in two ways.
The first is using DPKG, another command line option taking the format:
sudo dpkg -i PACKAGENAME.deb
The second option is to resort to the Gdebi package installer, which is a stand-alone graphical front-end to install packages without all of Software Center's checks.
Both will still complain if you have unsatisfied package dependencies, so they are not 'get out of jail free' cards.
Remove Mounted External Drives and Partitions from the Launcher
If you find your Launcher bar cluttered with every external device and mounted partition, you can stop Unity displaying them there with one more terminal command:
gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Devices devices-option “Never”
You could also get the Ejecter AppIndicator which sits in your Notification area.
Get More AppIndicators
There is a huge list of further AppIndicators available over on Ask Ubuntu, which just goes to show how utility will override design intentions any day!
Fallback to Gnome Panels
You're still not getting on with Unity desktop in everyday use, Xfce has a few quirks and Kubuntu is still a culture shift too far.
You could drop back to the look and feel of GNOME-2! Panels and menus are fast and lightweight and do just what's needed. They are also easy to achieve thanks to a couple of small package installs, which give me the desktop shown.
Firstly, install the package ‘gnome-fallback-session’ from the Ubuntu Software Center. This one package does the hard work.
Log out of your desktop back to the LightDM login manager and choose ‘GNOME Classic (No Effects)’ session from the session drop-list. Hit the cogwheel next to your user name to choose it before you log in.
This opens a classic 2-panel desktop, in a GNOME-2 'stylee'. You can change the Panel backgrounds (or not) to suit yourself.
The critical change in operation is the ALT and right-click combination for making changes to panels. It's an accessibility-busting key plus mouse combination, but that's what fallback has to work with:
- Alt+right-click on the top panel
- choose ‘Properties’
- select the ‘background’ tab
- select background image and click the button
Browse your ‘usr/share/themes/' folder and see what you've got that contains 'panel' and .png; for example: Ambience/gtk-2.0/apps/img/panel.png’
Add Ubuntu indicators
There's a PPA by developer Jason Conti containing a compatible indicators applet; add it using the line ‘ppa:jconti/gnome3‘ under your Software Sources.
You may want to get the public key for this PPA now if you want Software Center to install future updates for the packages from Jason's PPA. The best way is via the terminal. We'll cover this another time.
Update the Software Center, then install ‘Indicator-applet-complete’.
Via the terminal you can alternatively install using:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jconti/gnome3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-applet indicator-applet-complete indicator-applet-session
(Note this pulls in dependent packages)
To complete the set-up:
- Alt+right-click on the top panel
- Choose ‘Add Applets’
- Add ‘Indicator Applet Complete’
Customize
To add, remove and move panel items is very easy, GNOME-2 style: ALT+right-click on a panel or item to add, move or edit it.
Change the LightDM Greeter Background
LightDM login manager is much more useful and visually pleasing than the old GDM login, albeit with a fixed background wallpaper at present. Fairly soon, you will have the option for the LightDM login manager to automatically pick up the default wallpaper for any username highlighted at the login selection screen.
In the meantime, you can set the wallpaper to pretty much anything you want using another magic setting in one of the LightDM configuration files. This applies in Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04.
You will have to launch a text editor with root privileges from the terminal (or via the run box using Alt+F2)
gksu gedit /etc/lightdm/unity-greeter.conf
Look down the settings until you find the line beginning background=
Change the background filename to anything you want to use, but do make sure you get the correct, absolute path to the file name (with extension), for example:
/home/robin/Pictures/ saas_fee_bg.jpg
Needless to say, your choice of wallpaper needs to be accessible on a local file-system that is already mounted when LightDM loads.
Save the file, log out to the LightDM greeter and see your glorious wallpaper!
Sadly the overlaid grid of dots isn't removable until 12.04.
Reset Unity To Default Settings
After tweaking Unity using tools such as Compiz or Ubuntu Tweak, you can find yourself with problems or find that something no longer works. Caveat emptor…
Unity settings can be 'reset', though. It's another terminal command:
unity –reset
That's a space and two dashes in the reset option.
Classic Gnome Panel Fix for Compiz Compositing
By default, the GNOME Classic Session grates with Compiz compositing in Ubuntu 11.10, for a less-than perfect perfromance. The fix is to edit the gnome-classic.session configuration file. The fastest way is via the terminal:
gksu gedit /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/gnome-classic.session
Amend the line:
RequiredProviders=windowmanager;notifications;
by removing notifications; from the end of the line:
RequiredProviders=windowmanager;
Save the file, log out and you can log back into Gnome Fallback using the ‘GNOME Classic’ option instead of ‘GNOME Classic (No effects)’.