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

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

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:

1. 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.
   
2. Backup your X configuration file(Display configuration ) 'sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup'
   
3. 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'
4. sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop (use kdm in case of Kubuntu)
5. sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.14.09-pkg2.run
6. Follow the instructions and you are done.
   
7. now Restart your computer to see the change.
8. "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..

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....