Restore Panels In Ubuntu Back To Their Default Settings

Messed up your panels in Gnome? Maybe your new to Ubuntu and accidentally deleted items or the panel itself and now you can't figure out how to get it back.
 
Sure, you can add a new panel and rebuild it by adding the items back on the panel.
Instead of going through the trouble, there is an easy fix that will restore your panels back to their default settings quickly.

Open up a Terminal window, by clicking on Applications \ Accessories \ Terminal. Or, if you deleted the top panel and cannot access the menus, just press ALT+F2 and in the run dialog box, type gnome-terminal then click on Run.

You can also browse for applications, such as Terminal from the Run window, by clicking on the arrow icon next to 'Show list of known applications" and browse for Terminal.

Once the Terminal window opens, enter the following command at the prompt:

gconftool-2 – -shutdown

(Note: There should be no spaces between the two dashes before shutdown.)

EDIT – Reader nickrud has suggested a better method instead of shutting down gconfd. Instead use the following command (thanks nickrud!)

gconftool – -recursive-unset /apps/panel

(Remember: There should be no spaces between the two dashes before shutdown.)

Then enter the next command:

rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel

And enter one more command:

pkill gnome-panel

That's it!

Both top and bottom panels will appear (if missing) with their default settings. Now you can customize them to your preference and get on with using Ubuntu.





Source: ethernal.org

wibom Wine Bottle Management

Application called Wine bottle management (or wibom) is used to (as its name suggests) manage so-called Wine bottles.

Wine is the program for running applications for Microsoft Windows on other operating systems, primary on GNU/Linux. This program creates in the user’s home directory a folder called .wine containing user preferences, the simplified version of Windows registers and files structure of simulated disk C:. Many Wine users don’t know there can be more those folders coexisting. They are called bottles. Because of bottles it is possible to have a few isolated instances of “Pseudowindows” on one system.

Wine offers no system for managing those folders. It is needed to have a basic knowledge of using Bash or any other system shell and knowledge of principles of Wine’s job to be able to use bottles. And this is business of wibom.

Wine bottles can be easily managed, they could be created, cloned. Windows software can be easily installed into them. Everything is possible through easy GTK interface.

Download

Debian / Ubuntu

There is a repository for Debian, Ubuntu and their derivates. Here is the APT line:

deb http://wibom.sourceforge.net/debian ./ #Wibom

In case, you don’t know what to do with that line, just follow the how-to. After adding the repository and updating the list of repositories, install wibom-debian or wibom-ubuntu package as usual. The repository is unsigned, if you want help us with a signed one, contact us.

openSUSE / SUSE Linux Enterprise

There is a repository for openSUSE 11.4 (thanks to Michal Hrušecký). You can add it as root by command:

zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/hroncok/openSUSE_11.4/ "wibom"

Than you can install wibom, wibom-gtk and wibom-bottle-chooser packages as usual. There are also repositores for 11.3 and Factory. As well as for SLE 11 and it’s SP1.

Mandriva Linux

There is a repository for Mandriva Linux (thanks to Peťoš). You can add it as root by command:

urpmi.addmedia --update wibom http://petos.cz/mandriva/wibom

Than you can install wibom, wibom-gtk and wibom-bottle-chooser packages as usual.

Fedora

There is a repository for Fedora 15 and 14. You can add it by saving the following file as /etc/yum.repos.d/wibom.repo.

[wibom]
name=Wine bottle management
baseurl=http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/hroncok/Fedora_15/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

Than you can install wibom, wibom-gtk and wibom-bottle-chooser packages as usual. Don’t forget to change Fedora_15 to Fedora_14 if using Fedora 14.

Other Linux distributions

Get the tarball and unpack it to your root directory. You’ll need a few dependencies to run Wibom. Here’s the list of Debian packages, they would probably have very similar names in your distribution (packages in brackets are optional):

wine bash trash-cli ruby libgettext-ruby1.8 libgtk2-ruby1.8 hicolor-icon-theme (xdg-utils zenity winetricks wget python-minimal)

Other UNIXes

We would appreciate any help with making packages for OpenSolaris or *BSD.

Screenshot :

Make Ubuntu distribution updates faster

Ubuntu 11.04 has just been released and if like me you're getting errors "Cannot download release notes" this is because the servers will be overloaded.
To make your download faster and put less pressure on the update servers open Update Manager, click "Settings", click the first tab "Ubuntu Software", select "Other" in the "Download From" box then click the "Best Server" button, this will choose the fastest server. The more users that do this the more the load is spread and quicker updates will be.

source : http://blog.rwky.net

Hex-a-hop

Hex-a-hop is a simple yet fun little puzzle game where you take a little girl hopping across tiles in efforts to destroy all the green tiles on the board. The beige tiles on the board are permanent and cannot be destroyed, but once you have stepped on a green tile, it will disintegrate as soon as you step on to another tile.
There are exactly 100 levels which obviously increase in difficulty as you progress through the game. After defeating a level, one or more levels are unlocked to allow you to progress on your tile smashing journey. If you are having particular difficulty on a certain level, you can usually choose a different path of progression, but if you want to beat the game, you’ll eventually have to return to face your nemesis again. There are no time limits or goals, so map things out, take your time, and dominate.

Hex-a-hop

It’s free; it’s simple; it’s fun. Download it now!

Brukkon

In keeping with the puzzle theme, I thought I’d offer a bonus Download of the Week for those of you who have 7 bones to burn. Similar to Hex-a-hop, Brukkon is a puzzle game where you must navigate a grid to reach the finish line, or in this case, finish tile.

Instead of a little girl hopping around though, you command a rolling robot across 35 unique levels including a bonus level exclusive to the Ubuntu Software Center which is featured in the screenshot below.
Unlike Hex-a-hop, Brukkon is more involved and provides features such as movable bridges, different weather conditions, and disappearing tiles.  The game also provides two different camera angles for you to view the entire board and map out your strategy.

 Brukkon and Ubuntu FTW!

Unfortunately, apt-urls are not available for paid items in the Ubuntu Software Center yet, so you’ll need to fire up Ubuntu Software Center manually to purchase and install it.  Brukkon is available on both Maverick and Natty.  For $7, it’s quite the steal.

all credit to Brian Thomason, Published May 2, 2011 OMG Ubuntu

The Clockwork Man

The Ubuntu Software Center has been filling up with new games recently, and I’d like to highlight another one of those this week.
Meet ‘The Clockwork Man’.
The Clockwork Man is an artistic, hidden object game set in the Victorian Era with a strong Steampunk vibe.

Hidden Object Game

In The Clockwork Man, you travel the world searching for the parts necessary to construct the world’s greatest invention.  To reach this goal, however, you must first find collections of items to gain information from in-game characters, fix devices, or solve puzzles to journey on.

If you run into trouble finding a particular piece of a collection, don’t worry, your faithful sidekick Sprocket will help.  Use him wisely though, as he must recharge from time to time.

The artwork in the game is amazing, and it is easy to get lost in it;  The game boast literally hundreds of hand-painted items.  The background music used is also soothing and very well done, which is a pleasant surprise not found in many Linux offerings.

The Clockwork Man is available in both Ubuntu Maverick and Natty for $14.99USD. For more information, you may visit the game’s official site. 

all credit to Brian Thomason, Published June 6, 2011 OMG Ubuntu