Ubuntu Sharing » Security

Remove Workspace Switcher from Unity Launcher(via ppa) in Ubuntu 11.10

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:17:56 +0000

The Workspace Switcher icon on Ubuntu Unity’s Launcher is a waste of space if you’re used to using keyboard shortcuts.
Workspace Switcher is un-customizable, it’s hard coded to unity and cannot be removed without hacking source code.

Option 1:

via imtx.me
Thanks to TualatriX, the developer of ubuntu-tweak who modified the code and added it into his personal PPA: https://launchpad.net/~tualatrix/+archive/personal

I’m not good at compiling codes and even not willing to spend time on it. So I tried this in Ubuntu 12.04 daily build. Installed (packages here):

libunity-core-4.0-4_4.24.0-0ubuntu2.1.1_amd64.deb libunity-core-4.0-dev_4.24.0-0ubuntu2.1.1_amd64.deb netbook-launcher_4.24.0-0ubuntu2.1.1_all.deb unity-common_4.24.0-0ubuntu2.1.1_all.deb unity-services_4.24.0-0ubuntu2.1.1_amd64.deb unity_4.24.0-0ubuntu2.1.1_amd64.deb

Missing dependencies can be fixed by Synaptic.

Option 2:

If you’d like modifying the code and rebuild unity by yourself, follow the steps from askubuntu:

Make sure you have the package dpkg-dev installed

sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev

To modify the code and compile it your self you need to do the following

mkdir ~/code cd ~/code mkdir build cd build sudo apt-get source unity cd unity*

Open plugins/unityshell/src/LauncherController.cpp with your favorite text editor, ie:

gksudo nano plugins/unityshell/src/LauncherController.cpp

Locate the lines

_num_workspaces = WindowManager::Default()->WorkspaceCount(); if (_num_workspaces > 1) { InsertExpoAction(); }

Change them to

/*_num_workspaces = WindowManager::Default()->WorkspaceCount(); if (_num_workspaces > 1) { InsertExpoAction(); }*/

Build the package

sudo apt-get build-dep unity sudo debuild -us -uc

Wait for it to finish and install when done

cd .. sudo dpkg -i unity*.deb libunity*.deb netbook*.deb

Guake – Another Drop-down Quake-style Terminal Emulator

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:14:03 +0000

Guake is a top-down terminal for Gnome, in the style of Yakuake for KDE, Tilda or the terminal used in Quake.
Guake’s properties window supports configuring keyboard shortcuts, appearences, main window height, etc. Unfortunately, the width is fixed and maximal.

Guake Preferences

Guake is available in Ubuntu universe repository. Install it via Ubuntu Software Center, or:

sudo apt-get install quake

Here are screenshots of Yakuake and Tilda (both quake style and available in ubuntu’s default repository):

Yakuake Terminal Emulator for KDE

Tilda

How to Login Without Password in Ubuntu 11.10

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:27:15 +0000

If your Ubuntu machine is at home, you may want log-in Ubuntu without a password in the Log-in Screen or run sudo command without asking for a password.

1.) Set your user account to log-in without a password.

This is easy, just click on top-right your user name and launch System Settings -> User Accounts. Click Unlock and enter the password. Now, double click on pass-phrase after Password and you’ll see following pic.

Choose “Login without a password” in first drop-down box and click “Change” at bottom.

Now, you can log-in this user without password both in GUI log-in screen and text (tty1~tty6) mode. The password is actually set to “None”. So in the tty1~tty6 (press Ctrl+Alt+F1~F6), it won’t ask a password for running commands with sudo at beginning. But in desktop environment, sudo command and “Authentication Required” window still need password and you can’t get through whatever you input. To deal with that see following steps.

2.) Reset password in command-line. After that, you can login without password in LightDM Login Screen and all others back to normal.

Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to navigate to TTY1 and log-in with your username. Then run this command to reset password:

sudo passwd YOUR-USER-NAME

Then input a new password and again to confirm.

3.) If you want executing sudo command without asking for a password in terminal, run:

sudo visudo

Under “# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges” change:

%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

%admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:NOPASSWD:ALL

Press Ctrl+X and then input y to save it.

Install PAC Manager – Manage Remote Connections in Ubuntu 11.10

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:39:00 +0000

PAC, Perl Auto Connector is a simple GUI to manage/launch SSH/Telnet connections to remote machines.
It is a Perl/GTK replacement for SecureCRT/Putty/etc (linux ssh/telnet/… gui)… It provides a GUI to configure connections: users, passwords, EXPECT regular expressions, macros, etc.

Features:

Unique linux app to implement SecureCRT’s functionality (more or less!)
Remote and local macros
Remotely send commands with EXPECT regexp
Cluster connections!! Connections on same cluster share keystrokes!!
Proxy support
Serial/tty connection via cu/tip/remote-tty connections!!
Pre/post connections local executions
TABS OR WINDOWS for connections!!
Wake On LAN capabilities
Possibility to split terminals in the same TAB!
Quick acces to configured connections via tray menu icon
Best linux GUI for ssh, telnet, sftp, rdesktop, vnc, cu, remote-tty, ftp, etc
DEB, RPM & .TAR.GZ packages available!!
More to come (ASA I find time!)
FREE (GNU GPLv3)

Pac Manager Website: http://sites.google.com/site/davidtv/

Installation

Download .deb package of pac from sourceforge.net

Then use this command to install pac in terminal:

cd ~/Downloads
sudo dpkg -i pac-*.deb

Run the command to fix dependencies error if any and finish installation.

sudo apt-get -f install

Ubuntu Tip: Enable installed apps synchronization with other computers

admin — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:42:37 +0000

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric final has been released. In this Ubuntu edition, OneConf is integrated into Ubuntu Software Center.
OneConf is a mechanism for recording software information in Ubuntu One, and synchronizing with other computers as needed. So now we can sync our installed applications with other computers using Ubuntu Software Center.

Launch Ubuntu Software Center. Click to File -> Sync Between Computers…, then input your username and password to enable this functionality.

Activity Log Manager- Clear History, Prevent activities from Logging by File Type/Application

admin — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:26:33 +0000

Activity Log Manager is a graphical user interface which lets you easily control what gets logged by Zeitgeist.

It supports setting up blacklists according to several criteria (such as application or file types), temporarily stopping all logging as well as deleting recent events.

Clear history, and stop all logging:

Prevent from logging activities by adding applications:

Prevent logging for the file types and file location:

Installing Activity Log Manager

Activity Log Manager can be installed from zeigeist ppa by running following command in terminal(supports Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid and higher):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:zeitgeist/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install activity-log-manager

Let Grub2 remember and auto-select last entry you booted

admin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:58:24 +0000

Grub2 can remember the last entry you booted from and use this as the default entry to boot from next time.

You may have multiple kernels or operating systems installed in one machine and managed with Grub2 boot loader. Then let Grub2 remember the last boot entry is useful. You don’t need to set a default boot entry any longer.

1.) Edit /etc/default/grub, and change the setting of GRUB_DEFAULT:

gksu gedit /etc/default/grub

change from:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0

to:

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

2.) Regenerate the configuration file:

sudo update-grub

Udev Discover – Gnome-Device-Manager-like app using gudev

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:21:00 +0000

Udev-Discover is a sysfs browsing tool focused on helping udev users and developers.

Main features:

Browsing the sysfs tree via udev
Reports udev device info and udev properties
Filter and search devices
Monitorize udev device events

Udev discover aims for being a gnome-device-manager-like app using gudev instead of HAL, and to provide some fancy features for udev users and hackers.

Installation:

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty user can installing this via ppa, just run following commands in a terminal window:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:fontanon/udev-discover
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install udev-discover

Alternatively, download the source code: http://fontanon.org/udevdiscover/download-and-install/

Bootchart – Audit Ubuntu boot sequence and render in a chart

admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:41:31 +0000

Bootchart is a tool for performance analysis and visualization of the GNU/Linux boot process. Resource utilization and process information are collected during the boot process and are later rendered in a PNG, SVG or EPS encoded chart.

The project started as a response to a challenge posted by Owen Taylor on the Fedora development mailing list:

“The challenge is to create a single poster showing graphically what is going on during the boot, what is the utilization of resources, how the current boot differs from the ideal world of 100% disk and CPU utilization, and thus, where are the opportunities for optimization.“

Installation

Bootchart is available in Ubuntu universe repository, install it using Ubuntu Software Center.

Alternatively, download bootchart: http://www.bootchart.org/download.html

Bootchart provides a shell script to be run by the kernel in the init phase. At next boot, the script will run in background and collect process information, CPU statistics and disk usage statistics from the /proc file system.

Tarballs of this data are left in /var/log/bootchart; from these either PNG or SVG will be generated if pybootchartgui is installed.

PPA of linux-backport-natty 2.6.38-10.46 for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:37:41 +0000

Natty proposed linux kernel 2.6.38-10.46 was released few days ago. Here’s a backport for Ubuntu Lucid release in ppa:euroford/linux-kernel.

Before adding this untrusted PPA, check the packages on ppa:euroford/linux-kernel. The ppa may change/update packages over time.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:euroford/linux-kernel
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.38-10-generic (or linux-image-2.6.38-10-generic-pae)

Changelog: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/2.6.38-10.46