Ubuntu Tips And Tricks

Change The Purple Background (Splash Screen) Ubuntu 12.04

In this tutorial we will see how to change the background image (splash screen) of the GRUB boot loader under Ubuntu 11.10/12.04 or older.

When you start your system, a boot menu will show up containing an ordered list of operating systems and kernels. This boot menu is black by default and can be customized as follows:

Start the Ubuntu terminal and install first the grub2-splashimages package with this command:

sudo apt-get install grub2-splashimages

GRUB spalsh images are stored in the /usr/share/images/grub folder, you can access it with this command:

sudo nautilus /usr/share/images/grub

If you want to use a custom image, make sure it is in the TGA format, then place it in that folder. After deciding which image to use as splash screen for the GRUB2 boot loader, edit now the /etc/default/grub file with this command:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

At the end of the file, add this line:

GRUB_BACKGROUND=/usr/share/images/grub/YOUR-IMAGE.tga

Replace YOUR-IMAGE.tga with your custom image name.

When you finish, press CTRL+Q and save your file. Run now this command:

sudo update-grub

Restart now your computer to see if changes are successful (hold down the SHIFT key to bring up the GRUB boot screen while rebooting). Source

OR

The Best And Easy Way....

Install Grub Customizer, every settings are under Preferences.

Grub Customizer (2.5.7) Installation

For Ubuntu 12.04/Linux Mint 13, you can easily install Grub Customizer with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

For openSUSE 12.1 or older, run the following commands:

(openSUSE 32-bit)

wget -O grub-customizer-2.5.7-i686.rpm http://goo.gl/vE2Ev

su

zypper in grub-customizer-2.5.7-i686.rp

(openSUSE 64-bit)

wget -O grub-customizer-2.5.7-x86_64.rpm http://goo.gl/1GL6

su

zypper in grub-customizer-2.5.7-x86_64.rpm

For Fedora 17 or older, you can install with these commands:

(Fedora 32-bit)

wget -O grub-customizer-2.5.7-i686.rpm http://goo.gl/vE2Ev

sudo yum install grub-customizer-2.5.7-i686.rpm

(Fedora 64-bit)

wget -O grub-customizer-2.5.7-x86_64.rpm http://goo.gl/1GL6B

sudo yum install grub-customizer-2.5.7-x86_64.rpm

That's it! source

HTTrack 3.46-1 Website Copier Released - PPA Installation For Ubuntu 12.04/Linux Mint 13

HTTrack is a web-based program that allows users to copy any website to your local hard drive for offline browsing. Nothing complicated with this website copier due to its plain web interface, you insert some few details about the website to download and let HTTrack do the rest, which will copy every page on the website, images, backgrounds, and every file hosted on that server with support of resuming interrupted downloads or updating existing mirrored websites.

The latest version of HTTrack is 3.46-1 which hasn't yet landed in the official Ubuntu repository (only for Quantal currently), but you can install it from our custom PPA as described below for Ubuntu 12.04/11.10/11.04. This version brings better unicode filenames handling and many bug fixes.

HTTrack 3.46-1 Installation

To install HTTrack 3.46-1 in Ubuntu 12.04 or Linux Mint 13 (Maya), open the terminal and run these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/web
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install webhttrack httrack

You can either start HTTrack via the Unity Dash, or open directly this URL:

http://upubuntu:8081/server/index.html

To browse copied websites, you can check them in the "websites" directory located on your home. For CLI (Command-line interface) mode, you can run this command from the terminal and follow given instructions:

httrack

HTTrack Home Page

source : http://www.upubuntu.com/

Disable Apport Error Report Dialog in Ubuntu 12.04

In fresh Ubuntu 12.04 installation, it keeps popping up annoying apport error report dialog on every log-in even after sending the error report. This simple tutorial will show you how to disable this dialog in Ubuntu.

Open up terminal from the dash home or press Ctrl+Alt+T, edit “/etc/default/apport” file with this command:

sudo gedit /etc/default/apport
Set enable=0:
enable=0

Save the file, and done!

What is the HUD?

The HUD or Heads Up Display is a search-based alternative to traditional menus and is a brand new feature in Ubuntu 12.04.

Some apps like Gimp or Inkscape have hundreds of menu items. If you're using apps like these, you may remember the name of a menu option, but you might not remember how to find it in the menus.

Using a search box can be quite a bit easier and even faster than navigating complicated heirarchies of menus. The HUD also can be more accessible than normal menus as some people are unable to precisely control a mouse pointer.

It's easy to try the HUD:

Tap Alt to open the HUD.
Start typing.
When you see a result that you want to run, use the up and down keys to select the result, then press Enter, or just click your desired search result.
If you change your mind and want to exit the HUD, simply type Alt again or Esc. You can also click anywhere outside the HUD to close the HUD.

The HUD keeps track of your search history and adjusts the search results to be even more useful the more you use it.

source

Reduce Application Icon Size Of Gnome Shell

Open Terminal & type

sudo gedit /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/gnome-shell.css

search for:

/* Application Launchers and Grid */

You'll see this:

/* Application Launchers and Grid */

.icon-grid {
    spacing: 36px;
    -shell-grid-horizontal-item-size: 118px;
    -shell-grid-vertical-item-size: 118px;
}

.icon-grid .overview-icon {
    icon-size: 96px;
}

Edit the icon-size: 96px to whatever size you like.
Save and
press Alt + F2 button then type r
or logout and login again to refresh the shell themes.

Enjoy.