Beautify your Desktop with Potenza, a New Icon Theme for Ubuntu/Linux Mint

Potenza is the name of the new icon theme that has been created by the Mystras team. This beautiful icon theme comes in two different colors for folders (blue and orange). In this article, we will see how to install this icon set in Ubuntu Unity or Gnome Shell, but the Potenza's author is working hard to make it compatible with most Linux desktop environments, you can support him here.

The PPA is available for these Ubuntu/Linux Mint distros:

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

Potenza Icon Theme Installation

To install Potenza and Potenza Orange in Ubuntu/Linux Mint, open the terminal and issue these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/potenza 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install potenza-icons

You can use Gnome Tweak Tool to enable the different variants of Potenza, or enter these commands from the terminal:

- Potenza (default)

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Potenza'

- Potenza Orange

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Potenza-Orange'

Here are some screenshots of Potenza under Ubuntu Unity:

Potenza Removal

In case you want to uninstall Potenza from your system, enable another icon theme then run these commands:

sudo apt-get remove potenza-icons 

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:upubuntu-com/potenza 

sudo apt-get update

SMPlayer 0.8.3 Fixes Youtube Video Playback Problems - Ubuntu/Linux Mint

SMPlayer has been updated to version 0.8.3 recently which fixes YouTube playback problems. As a reminder, SMPlayer is a front-end for MPlayer capable of playing almost any media formats without the need to install any external codecs because it comes with built-in codecs. You can also use SMPlayer to search, play and download YouTube videos.

The PPA below is available for the following Ubuntu/Linux Mint distros:

• Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10
• Linux Mint 14/13/12

SMPlayer 0.8.3 Installation

To install SMPlayer 0.8.3 in Ubuntu/Linux Mint, open the terminal and enter these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install smplayer smplayer-themes smtube

SMPlayer Removal

To uninstall SMPlayer from your computer, enter these commands:

sudo apt-get remove smplayer* 

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:rvm/smplayer 

sudo apt-get update

SMPlayer Home Page

Porteus 2.0 RC1

Ira McDaniel has announced the availability of the first release candidate for Porteus 2.0, a set of Slackware-based live images with a choice of KDE 4, LXDE, Razor-qt and Xfce desktop environments: "The Porteus community is excited to announce Porteus 2.0 RC1, the first development release of a new version for our standard and Xfce editions. Porteus is a lightweight, highly configurable and flexible live distribution based on Slackware that is optimized to run from USB drives, flash cards, CDs or other storage media. The 32-bit standard edition now ships with Razor-qt as the desktop environment, replacing Trinity/LXDE. Some of the more important changes from Porteus 1.2 include: bumped Linux kernel to 3.7.1 and userland to Slackware 14.0; switched to initramfs and added a second initramfs for PXE booting...." Visit the Porteus forum to read the full release announcement. Download: Porteus-v2.0-rc1-i486.iso (235MB), Porteus-XFCE-v2.0-rc1-i486.iso (198MB), Porteus-v2.0-rc1-x86_64.iso (224MB), Porteus-XFCE-v2.0-rc1-x86_64.iso (186MB).

Finnix 107

Ryan Finnie has announced the release of Finnix 107, a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian's testing branch: "Today I am pleased to announce the release of Finnix 107, only two months from the previous release, but packed with new functionality and bug fixes. Finnix 107 includes Linux kernel 3.6, and includes a fix for the (overhyped, it seems) ext4 corruption bug. Average Finnix startup times have been reduced even further by the cleanup of legacy code. In addition, the shutdown procedure, which largely has not changed in years, got a revamp and is now noticeably quicker. The x86 ISO is now being built with the isohybrid method, meaning you can now write the ISO directly to a USB flash drive at the block level to boot it." Read the release announcement and release notes for further information. Download (MD5): finnix-107.iso (117MB, torrent), finnix-ppc-107.iso (117MB, torrent).

The reNIX Theme Ported To GTK 3.6, PPA Available For Ubuntu 12.10/Linux Mint 14

reNIX, an amazing GTK+ 3 theme, has been updated recently to work with Gnome 3.6 which can be now installed in Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal). This latest release also fixes some minor issues. reNIX is compatible with both Unity and Gnome Shell.

The PPA below is available for Ubuntu 12.10 and Linux Mint 14. To enable this theme, you may use Gnome Tweak Tool or any other tool of your choice.

reNIX Installation

To install reNIX from PPA, open the terminal and enter these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk+3.6 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install renix-gtk

reNIX Removal

In case you want to remove this theme from your system, switch to another theme, then issue this sequence of commands:

sudo apt-get remove renix-gtk 

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk+3.6 

sudo apt-get update

How to Monitor your Laptop's Battery Life Status in LXDE - Ubuntu/Linux Mint

If you install and enable the LXDE desktop environment under Ubuntu/Linux Mint, you will notice that the battery life status icon is missing which will prevent users from knowing the battery level of their laptops. In this tip, we will see how to use fdpowermon - a simple tool for monitoring battery power of laptops with ACPI - to display the battery life status icon in your taskbar.

To install fdpowermon in Ubuntu 12.10/12.04 or Linux Mint 14/13, open the terminal and run this command:

sudo apt-get install fdpowermon

Let's now configure fdpowermon to start automatically after you log in to your desktop. To do this, edit this file (replace gedit with your favorite text editor):

gksu gedit /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart

Append this line:

@fdpowermon

Save your file and exit. The battery status icon will now show up automatically at system startup: