Install Lock Keys indicator in Ubuntu 12.10 using ppa

This simple and brief tutorial will show you how to install the Lock Keys indicator in Ubuntu using ppa. If your Ubuntu laptop doesn’t have any LED indicators for the lock keys, it may be useful. The indicator displays notifications on top-right corner when you press on Lock Keys and the applet on top-panel shows you whether your caps lock, num lock, or scroll lock keys are on.

You can set it to show the indicator when lock key is inactive.

Install Lock Keys indicator using ppa:
The keylock indicator daily build ppa provides latest packages for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, 12.04 Precise and 11.10 Oneiric.
Hit Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then run following 3 commands to install it from the ppa repository:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tsbarnes/indicator-keylock-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-keylock
Once installed, launch it from the Unity Dash. It will be set to automatically start at next login.

How to Disable Apps Running In The Background in Android

If you ask any Android expert for the solution to fix a slow phone, one of the answer you will receive is to uninstall the unnecessary apps so they won’t run in the background. But what if you need an app to be installed (even though you are only using it occasionally) and yet preventing it from running in the background?
One solution is to make use of a Task Manager and kill the background running app regularly. Alternatively, you can disable the app totally so it won’t (and can’t) be running in the background at all.
Here’s how you can manually disable apps from running in the background without your permission.
Note: This trick will only work in selected phone. It does not work in the stock Android in the Nexus device.
1. Go to the “Settings” section in your phone.
2. Scroll down and go to Applications manager.

3. Swipe from right to left until you reach the “All applications” tab.

4. Now, tap on the app you want to disable from running in the background and it will show you two buttons: Disable and Force Stop. Tap on Disable.

It will ask you for confirmation whether you want to disable the app, just tap OK.

And you are done. Now, the app will not run in the background even if any other application tries to execute it. If you want to enable it, just follow the same steps. However, one thing you should note here is that if you disable any application, it will disappear from the App Drawer and will not be available till you enable it again. You can also use the Force Stop to temporarily stop the app from running.

CrunchBang Linux 11 R20121015

Philip Newborough has announced the availability of a new development build of CrunchBang, a lightweight Debian-based distribution featuring the Openbox window manager: "It has been approximately three months since the previous 'Waldorf' images were built, so I figured the time was right to upload some updated builds. To be honest, I was tempted to wait until Debian 'Wheezy' migrates to stable before updating the builds, but Debian being Debian (released when ready), it could mean waiting a week, a month, or even a year. Anyhow, the new images contain some fixes to the installer that affected installations performed using DVD media. Personally, I tend to install via a USB stick, so I had not come across the bug myself, until somebody else mentioned it. The bug appeared as an error message just before the GRUB install screen, where it asked the user to insert an additional disk." Here is the full release announcement listing the most notable changes. Download (MD5): crunchbang-11-20130119-amd64.iso (751MB, torrent).

How to Exit the Terminal after 'n' Seconds of Inactivity - Ubuntu/Linux Mint

In this tip, we will see how to force the terminal to close after n seconds of inactivity (idle). I tested this tip in Ubuntu 12.10 and may work in older versions of Ubuntu and this includes Linux Mint.

Getting Started

Open the terminal and edit /etc/profile with this command:

sudo gedit /etc/profile

At the end of the file, enter these lines:

# Exit Terminal
TMOUT=900
export TMOUT

In TMOUT, I have set the terminal to exit after 900 seconds (15 min), set your own time in seconds. After saving your file, run this command to apply the new changes without the need to log out and log back in:

source /etc/profile

AMD Catalyst Display Driver 13.1 Adds Official Support for Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)

ATI/AMD Catalyst Driver 13.1 for Linux-based systems has been released recently that brings various bug fixes and improvements. AMD has stated that this release fixes most of the problems encountered with Steam for Linux and it brings support for Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) and XServer 1.13. You can review the release notes for AMD 13.1 here.

The PPA from xorg-edgers is available for the following Ubuntu/Linux Mint distributions:

• Ubuntu 13.04/12.10/12.04
• Linux Mint 14/13

A- Automatic Installation (Recommended)

You can install the driver from PPA using this sequence of commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install fglrx-installer

After finishing the installation, you need to remove the xorg-edgers PPA using these commands before rebooting your system:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa 

sudo apt-get update 

B- Manual Installation

If you prefer to install the driver manually, you can go through all these steps, but I can't confirm that this may work for all users:

   1. Uninstalling The Current AMD Driver

Before starting the installation of this new driver, you need to remove your current driver using these commands:

sudo sh /usr/share/ati/fglrx-uninstall.sh 

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx_* fglrx-amdcccle* fglrx-dev* xorg-driver-fglrx

Or

cd /usr/share/ati 

sudo sh ./fglrx-uninstall.sh

   2. Installing Dependencies

First of all, let's install some dependencies needed for creating the Debian packages out of the .run file. Open the terminal and enter these commands:

sudo apt-get install cdbs fakeroot build-essential dh-make debconf execstack dh-modaliases 

sudo apt-get install debhelper dkms libqtgui4 libstdc++6 libelfg0 unzip

Users of amd64 platforms (64-bit) need also to install these packages:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs-multiarch i386 lib32gcc1 ia32-libs libc6-i386 ia32-libs

   3. Installing The AMD Driver

Via the terminal, download AMD Catalyst driver 13.1 with these commands:

mkdir -p ~/amd-driver && cd amd-driver 

wget -c http://goo.gl/gKM8v -O amd-catalyst-13.1-linux-x86_64.zip 

unzip -oq amd-catalyst-13.1-linux-x86_64.zip

Generate now Debian packages for your distribution with the following command:

sudo sh amd-driver-inst*.run --buildpkg `lsb_release -is`/`lsb_release -cs`

Install the driver with these commands:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb 

sudo aticonfig --initial 

sudo reboot

UberStudent 2.0 "Lightweight"

Stephen Ewen has announced the release of UberStudent 2.0 "Lightweight" edition, an Ubuntu-based educational distribution designed for learning and teaching academic computing at the higher education and advanced secondary levels: "I'm very pleased to announce the release of UberStudent 2.0 Lightweight edition. It is designed to reinvigorate older or slower computers, and for netbooks, as well as for anyone who simply prefers a lightweight Linux distribution. Great care and testing has gone into aiming this release as the most feature-filled, polished, and stable lightweight Linux distribution available for education. It features a synergy of smartly chosen installed applications and web apps. The result is a remarkably full-featured desktop that enables you to be productive even if you lack Internet access." Read the rest of the release announcement which includes known issues and a screenshot. Download: uberstudent-2.0-lxde-i386.iso (662MB, MD5).