Bash Aliases: What To Do If They’re Not Working

If you set up a .bash_aliases file for terminal command shortcuts, but when you try to run them you’re told the commands don’t exist, then the following tip should get them recognised. It seems that in recent versions of Ubuntu, the file ~/.bashrc has the option for recognising .bash_aliases commented out. I found this can happen after an upgrade as well, so if you suddenly can no longer run your aliases, you’ll need to follow this tip too.

The following is what the aliases section in .bashrc should look like:

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
. ~/.bash_aliases
fi

You’ll probably find a hash (#) before the command starting with “if“, so remove that, and any others in the two lines below it. Leave the hashes above the command, as those lines are comments. Once you save .bashrc, you should be able to use your command shortcuts immediately thereafter.

Microsoft vs Open Source: There Are Fangs Beneath Those Smiles! (aka: The War Is On!)

You know, it really sucks being gullible. I like to think of myself as over-optimistic, but when I really should know better, yet persist in dreaming loftily, only one word comes to mind: sucker.

For years the free open source software (FOSS) community has called upon the Evil Empire Microsoft to work with it in making the world of computing better for all of us. Developers of free programs (who obviously don’t do this for the money) have continually had to beg Microsoft for access to details of their file formats, and have even had to fight them in court as the monopolistic giant drove to crush any opposition. And all this when Microsoft laughed at the idea that FOSS and Linux could ever be serious threats.

Now, all of a sudden, Microsoft is extending hands in welcome to FOSS developers, claiming to want to work with them for the benefit of all, and most people people are greeting this with “Yes! About time!”, rather than “Hmmm… OK… what the hell is going on here? Back away… slowly.”

While it is no longer any secret that Ubuntu has finally forced them to turn their heads towards Linux, the majority of people still see OpenOffice.org (OOo) – the free office suite – as not much of a threat to MS Office. But Microsoft are taking note of the increasing number of Windows-based PCs running OOo and are obviously alarmed, because they’ve set up a strike force and are recruiting heavily.

Previously, Linux was a minor pain to Microsoft, less so than Mac, and businesses using it for their servers still usually had Windows machines connected to them. But now, not only are more “home” users switching to Linux distros like Ubuntu, and using the FOSS that comes on them, but more Windows users are opting to try out free alternatives rather than keep paying to upgrade their Microsoft programs.

Even more frightening for Microsoft is the decline in those lucrative contracts from businesses and government departments around the world. Not only are they seeing their expensive products like Office replaced by OOo (as well as free products like Internet Explorer and Outlook Express being replaced by Mozilla’s Firefox and Thunderbird), but schools, corporations, institutions and government agencies are now turning their Windows-based workstations into Linux boxes.

While Ubuntu’s success has certainly had something to do with this (since many people hadn’t even heard to word “Linux” until they came across Ubuntu), it’s also due to the fact that great programs from the FOSS world, like OOo, are gaining popularity in the Windows world. When people see that these programs are as good as (if not better than) Microsoft’s, then get exposed to user-friendly distros like Ubuntu (which usually come with heaps of programs installed, including the full OOo suite), the step away from dependence on Microsoft suddenly seems not so scary.

And now that this is happening at a rate that is causing palpitations at Redmond, all of a sudden Microsoft is ready for dialogue and a working partnership with the FOSS world. And while most should be worried about this, it seems the prospect of this unprecedented opportunity is dazzling the caution out of many. It really isn’t that strange though, just human nature: even an avid anti-monarchist would feel at least a small thrill meeting the Queen (though probably wouldn’t admit it). But the trouble with this is that Microsoft isn’t human; while it has the legal rights of one, its obligation is to increasing profits for its shareholders, not worry about moral or legal issues, so is in fact a monster (or perhaps psychopath is more apt – watch the documentary “The Corporation” and be enlightened!).

So, while smiling and shaking hands with FOSS developers, Microsoft’s henchmen aren’t there to help usher in a glorious new era, they’re there to infiltrate. The plan to get as much inside knowledge as possible, with only one purpose in mind: to use it against the FOSS world. Microsoft have finally realised two things – that the FOSS/Linux threat is real, and that they need a new approach to dealing with it – so have sued for peace while quietly readying for war.

Rather than just undermine open source (quite loudly) at conferences, or send out misinformation to the media, Microsoft HQ has gotten clever and sent out its wolves in sheep’s clothing. Under the guise of mutually-beneficial co-operation, Microsoft’s henchmen will be gathering as much inside info as possible, in order to help defeat the enemies they pretend to embrace.

If you’re thinking this is just a paranoid conspiracy theory, then you’ve obviously forgotten all the previous ones that ended up being true, landing Microsoft in court on numerous occasions. But go to Google and choose a few choice words to search for (like “Linux and Open Office Compete”), and you’ll see more and more on this. Or why not just check out Microsoft’s recruitment department, perhaps searching for “Linux Compete”? It won’t take long before you see Microsoft is very serious about this silent but deadly war of theirs; they’re so serious, they don’t even seem to care about hiding the fact!

Here is a copy of Microsoft’s recruitment ad for a “Linux and Open Office Compete Lead, US Subsidiary” position (note the position is no longer available, but the link for it is currently right at the top of a Google search for “Linux and Open Office Compete”).

Job Category: Marketing
Location: United States, WA, Bellevue
Job ID: 700901 9914
Division: Marketing
Linux and Open Office Compete Lead, US Subsidiary (CSI Lead)

If you’re looking for a new role where you’ll focus on one of the biggest issues that is top of mind for KT and Steve B in “Compete”, build a complete left to right understanding of the subsidiary, have a large amount of executive exposure, build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux & Open Office Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills and report to a management team committed to development and recognized for high WHI this is the position for you!
The Commercial Software Initiative (CSI) Lead plays a pivotal role for the Subsidiary GM, the BG leads and the BMO by building a discipline within the US that is focused on competing against. The core mission of CSI is to win share against Linux and OpenOffice.org by designing and driving marketing programs, changing perceptions, engaging with Open Source communities and organizations, and drive internal readiness on how to compete with Commercial Linux and participate with Open Source Communities.

While any emphasis above was my doing, to highlight certain points, the words are all theirs, including mention of how worried CEO Steve Ballmer is about open source software and operating systems!

If you want to read more about this, you can also check out this summary of the impending war with OOo, as well this search page for “Linux” at Microsoft’s recruitment page.

And if you’re still a loyal Microsoft customer but feel like having some fun throwing rocks at a giant, download OpenOffice.org now and give it a go! And when you finally get sick of Windows, then it’s time to give a Linux distro like Ubuntu a try!

How to Find the Mount Point & Device Name of your CD/DVD Disc Drive in Ubuntu

Every now and then, you’re going to need some technical info about your optical disc (CD or DVD) drive. For example, if you’re using a command like that outlined in Fix “Cannot find input plugin for MRL [dvd:/]” Error in Kaffeine, MPlayer & Other Media Players in Ubuntu, being sudo ln -s /media/cdrom0 /dev/dvd, it will be useless if /media/cdrom0 is not the actual mount point. Often I see in forums people complaining a command couldn’t find the disc drive, but the command would work if the correct mount point was specified (they’re not universal, which I think many people expect them to be).

But finding out the mount point of your CD or DVD drive is actually quite easy: insert a disc, wait for it to be mounted, and when a folder window opens to the drive automatically (if it doesn’t, open it manually), simply note the path/address in the Location bar! Yes, it’s that easy, since the location won’t be the disc’s label, but the mount point on your system.

Another way to do it is simply browse through the subfolders in /media (or could even be /mnt on older systems) until you find the one that shows your disc (you’ll need to have one in the drive, of course).

Or if you want to do it via the terminal, you can use mount|grep ^’/dev’ which will display info as follows:

/dev/sda2 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sda1 on /media/Windows-XP-x64 type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sr0 on /media/cdrom0 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,user=ozzman)

In this case, /dev/sr0 is the device path, and /media/cdrom0 is the mount point, so if you ever come across a command for your disc drive where the mount point is specified as (for example) /media/disk1, you can pretty much expect it not to work, but at least you know that you can replace the incorrect value with /media/cdrom0 (or whatever your mount point actually is).

Google Chrome Themes for Ubuntu Users

Google Chrome is a great web browser that really does seem to live up to its promise of being fast. And just like Firefox, you can get all sorts of extensions and themes for it (read more about Google Chrome here). But I noticed a lack of Ubuntu-based themes, so decided to make a few of my own.

I’ll try and cater for all tastes, from subdued to somewhat loud (yet totally usable). I’ll be making a few dark themes, as that is generally my preference, but I may yet make a traditional “human” theme in shades of tan and brown, and perhaps even one themed purely in the 3 official colours. But for the most part, they’ll be shiny and on the dark side, and I’ll be adding more here as I publish them at the Google Extensions site.

Rather than give a summary of each theme, I’ll just give the screenshots, and you can click on the title of each theme to go to the download page and read the hows and whys there.

Remember to right-click the Install button and choose Save Link As so you have a copy of the .crx file in case you need it later. To install a theme, just drag it to Google Chrome, then click the Continue button. You can then click Undo if you want to revert back to your original theme, or just keep installing themes, then install your final choice without having to download it again. (Note: you may no longer need to drag the theme to the browser to install it, as recently it began to automatically initiate the install straight after download)

Once again, I’m trying to cater to a variety of tastes here, so if a theme is too loud for your tastes, then please move on to the next. But since you can just overwrite a theme with another (or click Undo), you may as well try a few, as some look much better in action than you’d surmise from the screenshots. For example, I wanted to make a dark theme for myself (Ubuntu Darkly Charcoal), but first decided to make a dark yet loud and shiny theme in brown with prominent logo in the top frame (Ubuntu Darkly Human), and to my surprise found I actually liked it enough to keep it as my theme.

Anyway, hopefully there is something here for your tastes; if not, leave a comment and give me some ideas (but please don’t ask for hot pink!). I’ll be adding themes regularly, so check back later for more.

Ubuntu Darkly Human

Ubuntu Darkly Charcoal

Ubuntu Dark Humanity

More coming soon!

Switch Between Installed Themes for Google Chrome in Ubuntu Linux

When Google Chrome first came out for Windows, people were hacking .dll files to change the theme. Now, with theme support, many still find they can’t reliably switch between installed themes, but have to install them again from the download page. This is certainly true of the Linux version (at least in Ubuntu), as the Extensions page tells you none are installed.

I’ve seen talk from Windows users of finding all the installed themes in an extensions folder, but currently in the Linux version you will not only find that there is no .crx file (the extension of the themes) belonging to this program to be found anywhere, but no file at all with the name/prefix of the installed theme.

When you choose to install a theme, it gets downloaded as usual, but then disappears from your ~/Downloads folder once it is installed.

So the way around this is not to click any Install buttons, but to right-click them and choose “Save Link As“. Then just save each desired theme where you can easily find them all, like a new folder called ~/Downloads/Google Chrome Themes. Note that if you’re at a gallery page with previews of lots of themes, you’ll need to go to each theme’s page and right-click the Install button there (otherwise you’ll be downloading .html web pages, not a .crx themes).

Once you’ve downloaded some, all you need to do is drag one and drop it anywhere on Google Chrome. You will see a confirmation appear at the bottom left, so click the Continue button to proceed with changing the theme.

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Read also:

Make Google Chrome Look Like the Rest of Ubuntu

Google Chrome Themes for Ubuntu Users

Make Google Chrome Look Like the Rest of Ubuntu

Google Chrome is a fast, lightweight web browser, and while it looks good, and there are many cool themes for it, you may prefer it to look like all your other programs. But you can in fact force Google Chrome to display a normal titlebar and window borders, that is themed like the rest of your system, whether it be by GTK+/Metacity or Compiz-Fusion/Emerald.

Simply go to the settings button and choose Options from the menu, and in the Personal Stuff tab check “Use system title bar and borders“ under Appearance. Above it you can also click the Use GTK+ theme button, and the rest of Google Chrome will be themed with the colours, textures and buttons of your current system theme.

To restore the titlebar and windows borders if you make these changes and decide to revert, check “Hide system title bar and use compact borders“. To let Google Chrome look after the rest of the decorating, you can click the Use Classic theme button, or just install another theme. If you want to change between installed themes, read this.

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See also:

Google Chrome Themes for Ubuntu Users

Install Google Chrome Web Browser in Ubuntu Linux

Google Chrome is a fast and lightweight web browser that has already become the 3rd most used browser on the planet. OK, so at 4.4% of the market it isn’t threatening to topple Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer, but it has pushed my beloved Opera out of that position in a fairly short time.

Basically, it is a very slimmed-down browser with less screen real estate being taken up by things like a menu bar, and in independent tests has proven to be much faster than other browsers. For this speed boost, Google employs its own technology which many experts claim have Mozilla and Microsoft scrambling to match, let alone better.

Also, security is something the developers take very seriously, and once again has proved equal or superior than its counterparts in independent tests.

For more detailed technical info and browser comparisons, just search online with your favourite search engine (funnily enough, Google comes to mind), but you can check out the Wikipedia article for a good introduction.

To install Google Chrome, simply go to the download page and specify either 32- or 64-bit Ubuntu, and proceed to download the .deb installer. You’ll notice at the bottom of the user agreement it says:

Note: Installing Google Chrome will add the Google repository so your system will automatically keep Google Chrome up to date. If you don’t want Google’s repository, do “sudo touch /etc/default/google-chrome” before installing the package.

Note that simply downloading the installer won’t do this, but the repos will be added during installation. And you may notice that if you don’t want the repos added, there is a command outlined to prevent this, though I would suggest you let Google Chrome update itself, to keep it stable and secure.

Once you’ve downloaded the file, double-click it to proceed with the install.

In the first dialogue that appears when you start Google Chrome for the first time, you’ll see you can import settings from your browser. If you have Firefox, then this is simple, but if you have another installed, like Opera, then it may not appear in the list (in my case, I have multiple web browsers, and only Firefox was available to import from).

You’ll also notice you can have crash information sent back to the Google developers; the default (surprisingly) is not to send any info, but if you plan to keep using it and want to help improve stability and performance, you might consider enabling this before proceeding.

If you have Firefox open, it will complain that it could not import settings due to this. Simply close Firefox, then click the Continue button to proceed with importing your Firefox settings, bookmarks and passwords.

When Google Chrome finishes loading, it will likely open your Firefox “Home” page as the first tab, as well as an introductory page for the program itself. If you look to the first pic, you’ll see it also grabs any links you added to Firefox toolbars.

When you click the + button at the end of the tabs to open a new tab, you will find a customisable page for links which is similar to Opera’s Speed Dial. Unlike the latter, however, you can’t really add new links at will, as it is more like a history of most frequently visited pages, but you can remove thumbnails for those you don’t want there (and also “Keep on this page“ any you want there permanently). It’s worth spending a few minutes customising this page (once you’ve surfed a few sites), as it can be quicker than opening a blank tab and then finding the link in your Bookmarks menu, like you’d do in Firefox when opening a frequently used page.

And if you’re wondering where your imported bookmarks got to, just click on the Other Bookmarks button on the far right.

When you go to your favourite sites, you’ll see any login information would have been imported, and you’ll be ready to log into Facebook, MySpace or eBay with a click.

And if you’re wondering about customisability, while the window border obviously does not use your GTK or Compiz/Emerald theme, note that you can skin Google Chrome with the many themes available, like you can do with Firefox and Opera, as well as install all sorts of useful extensions. Once the browser is installed, go to the settings/spanner button to the far right of the address bar (it will say “Customize and control Google Chrome” when you hover your cursor over it), choose Extensions from the menu, and on the page that appears telling you you have none, click the “browse the gallery“ link to look for goodies to install (use the Search field to look for “theme“ and “skin“ if you just want to change the look and not wade through hundreds of other extensions).

As you can see, it is no major pain setting up Google Chrome, and currently is just a 12.8Mb download, so you may want to give it a try, even if you just want a backup browser in case Firefox misbehaves and you don’t want to reboot. And if you’ve been having issues with your browser, or just prefer something more lightweight yet full-featured, this just may be what you’ve been looking for.

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Note: Currently the Linux version is still a “beta”, but on my 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” system, seems perfectly stable.

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ADDITIONAL INFO:

Make Google Chrome Look Like the Rest of Ubuntu

Change Between Installed Themes in Linux

Google Chrome Themes for Ubuntu Users

Customise the GDM/XSplash Login Screen in Ubuntu 9.10

As you are probably aware, since Gnome is moving away from its own GDM login screen to that of X-Server’s XSplash to improve boot time, Ubuntu “Karmic Koala” has little to offer in the way of customisability of the login process. While the masses are wailing about the step backwards that Ubuntu has taken, it has to be stressed that this is something the Gnome developers have done, and that (unsurprisingly) there are ways around this. And as you’ll see, while before you had to download GDM themes and hope you liked all the aspects (or make your own), with these little hacks you can change one or more features of the login screen, so in effect create your own themes.

There is a command-line hack that involves logging out and entering a tty session, and you can change many aspects of your login there (everything but the throbber, welcome sound and user icon). However, since there are ways to change each aspect while at the desktop, usually with quick terminal commands, I’ll list those first, and include the former near the end. And I’ll also show how to do the same thing as the tty hack, but with the Appearance dialogue while you’re still logged into your current session; this is by far the easiest method for changing nearly everything visual about your login screen, so we’ll begin with that.

For some users, none of the cosmetic aspects matter as much as the user list being shown by default, which many see as a major security issue. I’ll include methods for rectifying this at the end.

The list of topics covered here are:

• Appearances GDM Customisation
• Login Background
• Logo & Throbber
• Previewing Your Changes
• GTK & Icon Themes
• User Icon
• System Sound
• Gnome Control Center Hack
• Disabling the User List
• Things To Avoid
• Conclusion

There should be enough alternative methods for each task that if one doesn’t work for you, another will.

Appearances GDM Customisation

You can actually change most aspects of the login – GTK theme (window borders, etc), background, font, and icon theme – via Appearance Preferences. But don’t go clicking on System > Preferences > Appearance, as that will only let you customise your desktop. Instead, run:

gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties

… and when Appearance Preferences loads, any changes you make will only be applied to the login screen. As you can see, you can change most aspects there, and only have to change the throbber, welcome sound and user icon manually. If for some reason this doesn’t work while logged in, log out and try the “Gnome Control Center Hack” method.

Login Background

If you just want to be able to specify your own background image for the login, you can overwrite the existing one in /usr/share/images/xsplash (where all images for the login are stored). If there are wallpapers of all resolutions installed with the current theme, you would usually be correct in assuming the image size would match the screen resolution. Or if you’re used to boot and login images needing to be smaller, you’d assume a picture of a smaller resolution would be used.

But you may be surprised to find that the current background is in a higher resolution, so if you’re running a widescreen monitor set at 1680×1050, it will likely be:

/usr/share/images/xsplash/bg_2560×1600.jpg

To find out which image is being used as the login background (if there’s more than one wallpaper image in the folder), enter the following in a terminal:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename

You can then just replace the current background with a picture of your own. In the case of the previous example, you could rename a smaller image of 1680×1050 as bg_2560×1600.jpg and it would work fine. Since the folder is a protected system one, you’ll need to open it with root privileges before you can edit, delete or overwrite files therein, so enter the following in a terminal:

gksu nautilus /usr/share/images/xsplash

Then just drag your new background to the folder that appears and overwrite the original. Or you can specify a picture of your own, which can reside anywhere (like your ~/Pictures folder), via the command-line.

To change the image being used as the login background, enter the following in a terminal (replacing the path and file name on the end with your own):

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename /home/yourusername/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg

Logo & Throbber

If you’ve downloaded or made your own alternative logo (to replace the Ubuntu one) and/or “throbber ” (the progress animation), it’s really a simple process to add these to your login. All XSplash image files reside in /usr/share/images/xsplash, so it is a simple matter of replacing the default images there.

The logo images you need to replace are:

/usr/share/images/xsplash/logo_large.png
/usr/share/images/xsplash/logo_medium.png
/usr/share/images/xsplash/logo_small.png
/usr/share/images/xsplash/logo_xtra_large.png

The throbbers you need to replace are:

/usr/share/images/xsplash/throbber_large.png
/usr/share/images/xsplash/throbber_medium.png
/usr/share/images/xsplash/throbber_small.png
/usr/share/images/xsplash/throbber_xtra_large.png

So, if your images have different names, simply rename them to those outlined, and overwrite the current images in the folder. Since the folder is a protected system one, you’ll need to open it with root privileges before you can edit, delete or overwrite files therein, so enter the following in a terminal:

gksu nautilus /usr/share/images/xsplash

Then just drag your new images to the folder that appears and overwrite the originals.

Previewing Your Changes

To preview your current XSplash theme (it will show the background image, logo and throbber):

sudo xsplash (hit Esc to exit)

GTK & Icon Themes

To find out which GTK theme is being used to decorate window borders in the login screen, enter the following in a terminal:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme

To change the GTK theme being used in the login screen, enter the following in a terminal (replace “BlackPlastic” with the name of the theme):

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type string --set /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme BlackPlastic

To find out which icon theme is being used in the login screen, enter the following in a terminal:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme

To change the icon theme being used in the login screen, enter the following in a terminal (replacing “Tangerine” with the name of the desired icon theme):

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type string --set /desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme Tangerine

You can also edit the file /usr/share/gconf/schemas/gdm-simple-greeter.schemas if you don’t like the computer icon. To do so, enter the following in a terminal:

sudo gedit /usr/share/gconf/schemas/gdm-simple-greeter.schemas

Then change the icon <default>computer</default> in the section:

<schema>
<key>/schemas/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/logo_icon_name</key>
<applyto>/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/logo_icon_name</applyto>
<owner>gdm-simple-greeter</owner>
<type>string</type>
<default>computer</default>
<gettext_domain>gdm</gettext_domain>
<locale name=”C”>
<short>Icon name to use for greeter logo</short>
<long>Set to the themed icon name to use for the greeter logo.</long>
</locale>
</schema>

The value you would change it to would be the name of the icon, minus the .png extension. If you look inside your icon themes folders (in ~/.icons and /usr/share/icons), you’ll see they all have a computer.png icon, usually in the Devices subfolder. So for icon themes to work, the images for all the system icons have to have specific names. Therefore, just change “computer” to another icon from the current theme, like “gnome-dev-keyboard” for gnome-dev-keyboard.png in the same folder.

User Icon

To change your user icon, enter the following command, then click the icon in the dialogue that appears, and pick another from the list (or browse to another folder and choose one of your own, like a photo):

/usr/bin/gnome-about-me

System Sound

If you’d like to change the welcome sound from the default drum roll, here’s a workaround you can employ. If you look in /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo, you will see that the default system sound, system-ready.ogg, is actually just a symbolic link to dialog-question.ogg. So you can delete that link and create a new one to another .ogg file, without actually deleting any sound files.

If you want to use another sound file from the same folder, for example desktop-logout.ogg, open a terminal in the folder /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo (or just launch a terminal and enter cd /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo) and enter the following commands:

sudo rm system-ready.ogg (to delete the symbolic link)

sudo ln -s desktop-logout.ogg system-ready.ogg (to create a new link to the desired sound file)

You can also specify your own sound file, and it can be anywhere, like your ~/Music folder, so use the following command to replace the one above (remembering to change the path and filename in the example to that of your file):

sudo ln -s /home/yourusername/Music/MyStartupSound.ogg system-ready.ogg

Gnome Control Center Hack

1. Log out of your current session to return to the login screen

2. Switch to the tty command-line prompt using Ctrl+Alt+F1

3. Log in using your normal username and password

4. At the command-line prompt type: export DISPLAY=:0.0

5. Then enter: sudo -u gdm gnome-control-center

6. Switch back to the login screen using ALT+F7

7. Gnome Control Center will be open, so use it to configure your login screen.

8. Click on the Appearances icon to change your login screen’s font, theme and background image.

9. Close Gnome Control Center and log in as usual.

Disabling the User List

You can disable display of the user list if you’re worried about security on a multi-user machine via this command in a terminal:

sudo gconftool-2 --direct --config-source \xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults --type bool\ --set /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list true

… or open Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor, browse to /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/ and put a tick next to disable_user_list. However, while this looks like an easy method, you may find that it doesn’t change anything, but you can also log out and do it via a tty session:

1. Log out of your current session to return to the login screen

2. Switch to the tty command-line prompt using Ctrl+Alt+F1

3. Log in using your normal username and password

4. At the command-line prompt type: export DISPLAY=:0.0

5. Then enter: sudo -u gdm gconf-editor

6. Switch back to the login screen using ALT+F7

7. The Configuration Editor will be loaded.

8. Go to apps/gdm/simple-greeter.

9. Change the Value of disable_user_list to TRUE.

10. Close the Configuration Editor.

11. Reboot your machine.

Things To Avoid

When looking around for answers, you’ll occasionally come across some info that may have been at one time sound advice, but could now land you in all sorts of bother. Here are a few, and I’ll add more as I come across them.

Usplash: One bit of advice I certainly don’t recommend is for recreating the old Usplash – the image with progress bar you used to see before the login. Once upon a time, the command sudo dpkg-reconfigure usplash-theme-ubuntu would be good for recreating the Usplash if something had gone awry with it. I’ve seen this command mentioned as the way to change back the theme back to the original via the terminal, but that is incorrect, as it in effect redraws it and messes with the kernel while doing so. In Ubuntu 9.10 with XSplash taking over that and the login, this may cause a display driver error upon rebooting, and choosing to log in anyway in low-graphics mode may not get you anywhere (nor will trying to restore settings from a backup), and you’ll have to reboot and choose to create a new config file for the current hardware.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are actually many ways to customise your login process, so Gnome’s move away from GDM isn’t such a bad thing after all. Beforehand, you had to know how to create a GDM theme, or accept downloaded themes as-is, but now with XSplash you can tailor everything about your login to suit your tastes.

Not Happy: Can’t Customise GDM Login Screen in Ubuntu 9.10 (Gnome Moves to XSplash)

I wasn’t aware till today that people have been going nuts trying to find out how to change the GDM login screen in 9.10 “Karmic Koala”, which used to be really simple via System > Administration > Login Screen.

But now that same app has barely any features, so people are scratching their heads (some quite vigourously, I should add) as to why Ubuntu’s developers would choose to implement this “regression”. So there are many people fuming that they can’t change their GDM themes, and while this isn’t going to devastate my computing world, I too think moving forwards is better than backwards.

But what most people don’t understand is that both those assumptions aren’t actually accurate. That is to say, it’s Gnome’s developers who have made this change, and you can in fact change aspects of the login screen, albeit via a command-line hack.

There has been talk of Ubuntu’s boot process having been speeded up in 9.10, at the expense of GDM customisability. While this is technically true, once again I’ll point out that it is Gnome that is changing, and since Ubuntu runs that as its desktop environment, it has no choice but to follow. Ubuntu just happened to be the first distro to have this change, so no doubt everyone getting the latest versions of other Gnome-based distros will be crying until the Gnome developers give back a more useful GUI app for customising the login.

What is actually happening is that Gnome itself is moving away from its own GDM login to X-Server’s xsplash, for the purpose of a speedier boot, so all the GDM themes you might have are pretty much useless anyway. The good news is that people are already making cool xsplash themes, and there is a way to hack the default theme (which might be enough if you just want the background picture changed), and no doubt there will be an app available for this task in the future.

Another thing people are grumbling about, and for the security-conscious this is a lot more important, is the fact that a list of all users is displayed in the xsplash login. For some this would be no big deal, but for others this is pretty much giving away half the login information. But once again, you can change this via a hack, and no doubt Gnome’s developers will be rectifying this soon due to the rather large outcry.

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For info on the many ways of customising your XSplash login screen, check out this comprehensive post.

Installing 32-bit Programs on 64-bit Ubuntu

Programs and packages available for Ubuntu generally come in both 32-bit (“i386″) and  64-bit (“amd64″) versions, and Synaptic will only look for those that suit your hardware architecture. But occasionally you may hear of a good app or game that you need to download from the author’s site, only to find there is no 64-bit version available.

If there is a source version that you need to compile manually (it will usually have a .tar.gz extension), then that is your best option for a 64-bit system. But increasingly developers are packaging their programs directly for Ubuntu (ie: as .deb installers), but only in 32-bit. If you try to install a 32-bit program in Ubuntu, you will likely get the following error message:

Error: Wrong architecture ‘i386′

At this point the installation will halt, but there is a way to install 32-bit programs on 64-bit systems. You can force install them by opening a terminal in the folder with the package, then entering the following command:

sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i filename.deb

Just remember to replace the last bit with the actual file name, which you can avoid typing by dragging the file to the terminal after typing the bulk of the command.