Ubuntu Tips And Tricks

Install apt-fast Download Accelerator in Ubuntu 12.04/11.10/10.04

apt-get command is a normal way to download and install packages and update system. apt-fast is a shellscript wrapper for apt-get that can drastically improve apt download times by downloading packages in parallel, with multiple connections per package. It uses axel or aria2c as a download manager.

Once you’ve setup apt-fast, you can use it like apt-get. To install a single package, make sure your database is up to date (apt-fast update), and run apt-fast install packagenamehere. Watch it download with incredible speed, and install your requested packages. To upgrade or dist-upgrade, do the same thing. Just use apt-fast dist-upgrade or apt-fast upgrade.

Install and set up apt-fast in Ubuntu:
apt-fast got an official PPA provides packages for Ubuntu 12.04, 11.10, 11.04, and 10.04. You can use a graphical way installing apt-fast from ppa:apt-fast/stable

Or, open up a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) window and just execute following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast axel

After installation, configure apt-fast to use axel as download manager:

edit the configuration file:
```
sudo gedit /etc/apt-fast.conf
```
remove # before following “_DOWNLOADER” line and save the file

# axel:
_DOWNLOADER=’cat /tmp/apt-fast.list | xargs -l1 axel -n ${_MAXNUM} -a’ # axel

Now, run this command and then you can use apt-fast as apt-get

sudo apt-fast update

How To Increase Your Internet Connection Speed in Linux

Open a terminal in Linux you can use the combo keys ( Ctrl )+( Alt )+( T )
Open a terminal for wireless enter iwconfig then hit enter. For wired eithernet enter ifconfig & hit enter.
This should display the hardware & location of =
EX =

CODE: SELECT ALL

mi@Mint8-KDEX64 ~ $ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth2      IEEE 802.11  Nickname:""
          Access Point: Not-Associated
          Link Quality:5  Signal level:207  Noise level:166
          Rx invalid nwid:0  invalid crypt:0  invalid misc:0

mi@Mint8-KDEX64 ~ $

So here you can see that my wireless adaptor is located @ ( eth2 )
YOURS MAY BE DIFFERENT SUCH AS Wlan0 OR WLAN1, note the location, keep the terminal open.
Then were going to Navigate Open the file as root user with your text editor(gedit,kate,leafpad,Ect. whatever your text editor may be for the relevant desktop version you are using ),The text file we are Going to open is /etc/rc.local
In the open terminal input, or copy & paste this code:

For Gnome
CODE: SELECT ALL

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

For KDE
CODE: SELECT ALL

sudo kate /etc/rc.local

For LXDE
CODE: SELECT ALL

sudo leafpad /etc/rc.local

Enter your password.(The cursor will not show you entering your password.) This should open the rc.local file as root in the text editor.
Add this exactly. to the end of the list replacing ( wlan0 ) with whatever is in your connection readout previously in the terminal you opened.

CODE: SELECT ALL

iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M

At The End your text file should look like this =

# By default this script does nothing.
iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M
exit 0

Now save the file ( from the text editor drop down menu ) & close the Text editor. Now Close the Terminal.
By adding this to the end of the rc.local file, every time your computer connects to the Internet,It looks for the maximum speed that your connection offers.
Now You Must Reboot your Computer.
This works on all four of my systems I have modified, so far giving me the same speed that I get in Win.
I hope this works as well for you, Comments & suggestions are welcome, Have a Good Day,

Thanks to Jay514 LinuxMint Forum

Install SunFlower 0.1a.42 Twin-Panel File Manager in Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10/Linux Mint 13/12

Sunflower is Open Source, twin panel, small and highly customizable File Manager for Linux with plugins support. Sunflower main purpose is to create powerful and easy use of file manager. Sunflower is developed in python language.

To install SunFlower in Ubuntu/Linux Mint open Terminal (Press Ctrl+Alt+T) and copy the following commands in the Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/sunflower

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install sunflower

How to Make Firefox Faster on Linux Mint

Before making any changes, please make a backup of .mozilla/firefox/--------.default/prefs.js for your own safety. prefs.js is a file that stores all of your history and bookmarks from Firefox.

First open Firefox.

Type "about:config" (without quotes) in the Firefox address bar and then click "Enter". This command opens a configuration page that allows the user to change advanced system settings in Firefox.

Speed up page loading/rendering time in Firefox. Right-click anywhere in the "about:config" window, click on "New" and then select "String". Name the string "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" (without quotes). Enter a value of "0" and then click "OK". This tweak decreases the amount of time Firefox waits to render a page from 250 milliseconds to zero. Make the same process and name the string "content.notify.interval" and enter a value of "0".

Force Firefox to release reserved system RAM when the browser is minimized. Right-click anywhere in the "about:config" window, click on "New" and then select "Boolean". Name the entry "config.trim_on_minimize" (without quotes). Change the value to "True" and then click "OK". This setting forces Firefox to only reserve about 10 MB of system memory while minimized.

Normally Firefox only sends one or two tunnels to the website. However, the more tunnels you use the faster you go. To change this, type in filter bar "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" and change the value to "150".

Attention: The more tunnels you use, the more bandwidth you use, meaning you could use as tunnels as you want but that would probably kill the sites bandwidth if everyone did that. 150 is a very good value.

Type "network.http.pipelining" in filter bar, and set it to "True" by double clicking it.

Type "network.http.proxy.pipelining" in filter bar, and set it to "True" by double clicking it.

Monitor System Resources in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

This tutorial shows how to monitor your Ubuntu system resources such as usage of processor, memory, network, hard disk and also cpu/motherboard temperature, cpu fan speed.
There’s a good system load indicator for Ubuntu monitoring cpu usage, cache, memory, network, etc. And psensor is a gtk+ application monitoring temperatures and fan speeds.

1. Install system load indicator

Open up a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and install it from ppa:indicator-multiload/stable-daily. You can use graphical way adding ppa

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:indicator-multiload/stable-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

2. Install psensor to monitor temperatures and fan speeds

First install lm-sensor, and start detect hardware sensors:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors sudo sensors-detect

Install Psensor from this ppa:jfi/ppa

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:jfi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install psensor