HowTo: Make your Ubuntu work like Windows & Change ubuntu start menu icon

2008-08-26T20:55:00.006+05:30

comfortable with win XP/Vista style start menu ? dont like 2 seperate panels in Gnome in your ubuntu? well you can easily make it look/work like windows XP/Vista style. here's what you do.

Remove the top panel in gnome by right clicking and choosing 'delete this panel'

Now right click on your bottom panel and select add to panel and select these 'menu bar', 'windows list', 'clock'..etc etc

Now you will have one ubuntu icon(menu bar), place it on your extreme left by right click 'move'.
Similarly arrange your rest of the icons and shortcuts in the panel.

Now you have your panel which looks like windows :)

But now the ubuntu logo is too small and it really doesnt look like a button and not at all a start menu ICON..so here's what you do

Now to change the start menu icon press Alt+F2 and type gconf-editor
goto apps->panels->objects.
select object_x(e.g object_0 etc) and look out for entry 'object_type'. look for the one where 'object type' = 'menu object' . for me it is object_1, this may differ according to your settings.
now once you are in the right object_x , tick on 'use_custom_icon' and add start menu button icon to 'custom_icon'(get loads at Gnome-look)

and that's how its done......

HowTo install NVIDIA Drivers on Ubuntu Hardy x64

2008-06-30T20:26:00.004+05:30

Ok i have faced lot of problems while installing the Nvidia drivers for my 9600GT graphics card on my Quad Core 2.4Ghz machine. Tried a couple of things , it worked once but next time it didn't, anyways so i decided to write a howto for installing Nvidia drivers keeping 9600GT in mind. I am posting two solutions, however the second one worked only once and it didn't really work when i reinstalled my system with Ubuntu 8.04(previous was Kubuntu 8.04). so here it is:

Solution #1:
The Simplest way is to install 'Envyng' (for x64) which is a GUI based(text mode also available) Nvidia and ATI Drivers installer. To install Envyng download the following packages

envyng-gtk -> Ubuntu
envyng-qt -> for Kubuntu

there are two ways to install packages in Ubuntu(for those of you who are new to ubuntu)
a)goto Administration->Synaptic Package Manager(for Gnome)
search for 'envyng-gtk' .right click->mark for installation and click on apply

b) open terminal and type 'sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk' and press Enter. It will ask for your password and it will start downloading.

c )Launch EnvyNG's GUI (inside a Desktop Environment such as GNOME,KDE, etc.) by selecting it in the "Applications/System Tools" menu OR if you need to use EnvyNG's textual interface you will have to type:

'sudo envyng -t'

d) Once you open Envy's User Interface its pretty much straight forward from there :)

e) Envy will ask you to Reboot the computer after its finished installing. Reboot and see the changes in affect.

Solution #2:
OK now this method works for most Cards(at least till 8800GT) reliably and it worked for me ONCE for my 9600GT. Anyhow here is what you need to do:

a) Go to Nvidia website and download the drivers for your Graphics Card and your OS(x86 or x64). you will have a file like this 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.14.09-pkg2.run'. Save it anywhere you would like (preferably your /home directory).

b) now before you go ahead and install the drivers it is important that you have the following packages:
In the terminal run the following command-> 'sudo apt-get install build-essential ia32-libs linux-headers-`uname -r`

c) Here comes the INSTALLATION steps, once you have the above packages installed and the Nvidia Drivers follow these steps:

Log out and log back in but instead choose console log in from the login options. This will take you directly to the terminal log in prompt.
Backup your X configuration file(Display configuration ) 'sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup'
Go to your directory where you have downloaded the Nvidia driver file (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.14.09-pkg2.run) which in my case is /home/karan directory.
Execute this command to make sure you have all the permissions required 'sudo chmod a+x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.14.09-pkg2.run'
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop (use kdm in case of Kubuntu)
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.14.09-pkg2.run
Follow the instructions and you are done.
now Restart your computer to see the change.
"Aaaaand that's how its DONE!"

NOTE:

In case your X (display)doesn't start and is forcing you to log in by Console , that means something somewhere has gone wrong. so in that case you can uninstall drivers by 'sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.14.09-pkg2.run --uninstall' and also get your original xorg.conf file by 'sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.back /etc/X11/xorg.conf'
I have used 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.14.09-pkg2.run' as an example the name may differ depending on your Graphics card.

Please post your comments/suggestions in case i missed out something.

Let there be Blog..

2008-06-02T23:40:00.003+05:30

Ok, so after months and months of resistance here i am finally writing this blog. The reason i finally decided to write is because recently(after i bought a new machine) i have been facing numerous problems and found it very difficult to deal with some of them. So i'll be mostly writing about Windows/Linux issues(ubuntu mainly) and with a solution of course and other tech related stuff. So let the Blogging begin....

Karan Sachdev's blog

HowTo: Make your Ubuntu work like Windows & Change ubuntu start menu icon

HowTo install NVIDIA Drivers on Ubuntu Hardy x64

Let there be Blog..