[ubuntu-uk] Greetings...

[Tony Arnold]

TheVeech wrote:

> I'm still trying to find out what's common knowledge and what people
> have overlooked in the Ubuntu world (for a future project).  It looks
> like there is very little that everyone knows, so I'd really appreciate
> it if you'd let me know how helpful you find the following, and if you
> already knew any of it (apologies for the attachments, but I haven't got
> the time to put up a web page right now)...
> 
> Some Laptop configs
> ----------------------------------
> 
> 1) Disable touchpad clicking:
> 
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticsTouchpad
> 
> My xorg.conf (Do a backup of the original first):
> 
> sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
> 
> The relevant bit:
> 
> Section "InputDevice"
>         Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
>         Driver          "synaptics"
>         Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
>         Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
>         Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
>         Option          "HorizScrollDelta"      "0"
> #new stuff
>         Option          "SHMConfig"             "on"
>         Option          "TappingOff"            "1"
>         Option          "MaxTapTime"            "0"
> EndSection
> 
> 
> 
> Restart X, reboot, or whatever, and you should be good to go!

Did not know about the above. I'll try it as I think I would find it
useful, especially if it means I can safely turn on single click in
Nautilus.
> 
> You might also want to try
> http://gsynaptics.sourceforge.jp/
> 
> It was in the repositories last time I looked.  It's a bit unnecessary,
> though, because the above should do it.
> 
> 2) Making the most of screen space
> 
> Seeing as though you use a laptop, you might also benefit from the
> following.
> 
> Here's a (cropped) screenshot of my Desktop to give you
> some ideas for modifying yours.  You'll notice I've only got one panel,
> but it works quite well.
> 
> First off, I unlocked all the essential bits of the bottom panel, moved
> them to the top one, and then deleted the bottom panel.
> 
> Then I changed the Ubuntu menu with (IIRC) the 'main menu' option in the
> 'add to panel' dialogue - See:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Applets .
> 
> I also used a number of drawers (see second screenshot) for my main
> applications (if you look closely, you'll see on a few of the panel
> icons a small black blob at about 7 o'clock - they're the drawers.
> 
> I set the all my system fonts to 7 points
> System > Preferences > Font
> 
> Then I set the size of the panel to 18 (right-click on the panel and
> select 'properties').
> 
> Then, I just experimented with the options until I got what I wanted.
> 
> It looks very cramped when you've been using the default set up, but
> once you get accustomed to a set up like this, everything's nice and
> close together.

I was aware you could do all of the above, but I've never been bothered
by the amount of screen space available to me on my laptop. I tend to
run most apps filling the screen available.

> 3) Desktop icons
> 
> If you want to enable desktop icons for your 'home', 'document, and
> 'trash' icons, try this:
> 
> Open Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and type:
> gconf-editor
> 
> In this program, go to:
> apps > nautilus > desktop
> 
> Tick whatever icons you want to show on your desktop.

Yes, I knew about this and have used it on all my machines.

Thanks for the tips.

Regards,
Tony.
-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester,
IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
E: tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk, H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold