Alt-TAB behavior in Ubuntu's Gnome Shell

Default behavior group TAB of the same app is a pain for me. Changing this to show all individual windows is as follows.

• Open dconf-editor
• Go to org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings
• Move the value 'Tab' from switch-applications to switch-windows
• Optionally move 'Tab' from switch-applications-backward to switch-windows-backward
• If you want switch-windows to work across desktops, not just in the current desktop, you can also uncheck org/gnome/shell/window-switcher/current-workspace-only
• Close dconf-editor
• Press F2, then type r to restart Gnome.

The last step does not always appear to be necessary, but it should not hurt (especially since it does not close any of your running applications).

[ trackback ]

Move Gnome panel between monitors

1. Right-click the panel you wish to move and select “Properties”.
2. Uncheck the “Expand” option under the “General” tab.
3. Grab one of the edges of the panel by clicking on the left or right end (top or bottom end for vertical panels).
4. Drag the bar to the desired screen and position.
5. Check the “Expand” option in the “Panel Properties” window and click “Close”.

All done!!

[ trackback ]

dnsactual.sh FreeDNS client

Since ddclient is supposed to work with FreeDNS, but is not *actually* working on Ubuntu, changed to dnsactual.sh from afraid.org unix client listings.

Since there's no .deb, had to hack it.

location: /usr/local/bin
schedule: root crontab every minute

TOKEN="YOU WISH :-)"
PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
IFACE=[PUBLIC-IF]

if test -f /etc/freedns/dnsactual.conf
then
CacheIP=$(cat /etc/freedns/dnsactual.conf)
fi

CurreIP=$(ifconfig $IFACE | grep -oEe "addr:[0-9\.]*" | cut -f 2 -d :)

if [ "$CurreIP" = "$CacheIP" ]
then
# Both IP are equal
echo "Update not required..."
else
# The IP has change
echo "Updating http://free.afraid.org with " $CurreIP
wget http://freedns.afraid.org/dynamic/update.php?$TOKEN -o /dev/null -O /dev/stdout
echo `date` "Updating log with IP " $CurreIP >> /var/log/dnsactual.log
fi
rm -f /etc/freedns/dnsactual.conf
echo $CurreIP > /etc/freedns/dnsactual.conf

Get Grub2 to save last chosen entry

Every piece of pseudo-help I've read on this matter says:

"edit /etc/default/grub, and set GRUB_DEFAULT=saved" to save your default boot choice.

While this is true, its not complete. It's not what 90+% of the people are looking for. It's a question of semantics.

I want to save my default boot choice EVERY TIME I BOOT... i.e. save the last chosen entry every time I boot - for multi-OS systems, I believe this is fundamental.

For this to happen, you need to ADD to /etc/default/grub (it's missing altogether in the file) the entry:

GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

This solves this issue. Without this line, /boot/grub/grubenv never gets updated when you choose you boot entry in grub boot menu.

This option is listed in 'info grub', but appears nowhere in the /etc/grub.d/* files.

Following the usual notation, the entry should be in the file, set as false and commented, indicating the default option if omitted:

#GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=false

[ trackback ]

Disable IPv6 on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Add to /etc/sysctl.conf


#disable ipv6
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1


and reboot... or for a quickie, 'echo 1 > /proc/sys/net...' as root

[ trackback ]

Wireshark as non-root user

When in Windows, you get the NPF service... in Ubuntu/Debian, you get:

apt-get install libcap2-bin
setcap 'CAP_NET_RAW+eip CAP_NET_ADMIN+eip' /usr/bin/dumpcap

[ backtrack ]

Ubuntu & NVidia :: Dual screen setup and gnome-panel

Dual monitors, set up with nVidia TwinView in a way that the gnome-panel does not stretch across the whole desktop but is only on one monitor.

Now I want to add another panel on the second monitor, but if I create a new one, I can only add it to the primary display.

Solution:

• add a new panel as usual
• run gconf-editor and go to apps/panel/toplevels/panel_
• set the variable "monitor" from 0 to 1

And that's it!

[ trackback ]

Adding missing GPG key for custom repositories

Option 1:

wget [URL].gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Option 2

#!/bin/bash
gpg --keyserver subkeys.pgp.net --recv $1
gpg --export --armor $1 | sudo apt-key add -