Category Archives: Software

Software

Fixed White Borders in Compiz Fusion

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As I mentioned the other day, I upgraded one of my systems from Kubuntu Feisty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon and had to fix some quirks with Compiz Fusion. Another anomaly I had was the appearance of wide white borders around application menus as well as the K-Menu in KDE. It appeared as though the menu shadows weren’t being rendered properly.

Fortunately, the fix for that was quite easy. Instead of the default KDE window decorator, gtk-window-decorator, use Emerald. The package can be found in Adept. After installing it, run emerald –replace to turn it on without having to log out. To adjust settings and customize the window decorations, go to Settings in the K-Menu and run Emerald Theme Manager.

So far, I’m liking Compiz Fusion. It hasn’t crashed and it’s very fast. I don’t notice any performance penalty as compared to using the regular 2D desktop. Granted, the 3D animations are just eye candy but they’re fun.

Software

Test Live CDs via Virtualization with VirtualBox

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Last month, I posted about the free VirtualBox virtualization software and how you can use it to run various operating systems on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (Intel CPU version) computers. Virtualization is also handy for quick and painless operating system evaluation purposes.

There are many Live CDs available today spanning a plethora of distributions of Linux, some Unices and you can even create your own Windows live CD. However, using them usually requires burning the ISO to a CD or DVD. Although media is cheap these days, it’s still a waste to burn discs just to try out things you may never continue using.

With VirtualBox, you don’t have to burn any discs to try things out. Simply follow these steps:

  1. Download the ISO file for the operating system you want to run. Verify from the description/help files/documentation that it is a bootable image (i.e. doesn’t require a boot floppy).
  2. Start VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine with enough memory for the operating system you’re going to try out.
  3. There’s no need to create a virtual hard drive for this machine if you’re using a Live CD/DVD since everything will run in memory. However, if it is an installation disc, then you will need to create a virtual hard drive large enough to install the operating system.
  4. Assign the ISO file to the virtual CD-ROM drive of the virtual machine.
  5. Start the new virtual machine.

Not only does this method reduce waste by avoiding the creation of plastic coasters (wasted CD/DVD media), it boots faster than a CD/DVD drive and your computer system is isolated from anything that may go wrong in the operating system you’re trying out.

So, now you’re all set to go play. Report back on the cool new operating systems you find.

Software

Fix Compiz Fusion on Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu + KDE)

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Having trouble getting Compiz Fusion working on Kubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)? So did I and here’s how I fixed it.

I recently upgraded one of my Kubuntu Fiesty Fawn systems to Gutsy Gibbon (version 7.10). However, since it was a distro upgrade, not a new installation, the Compiz Fusion system wasn’t installed by default. Even after installing the compiz packages, things still weren’t quite right.

First, in addition to the compiz package, you have to select the compiz-kde package. For some reason, Adept doesn’t select it automatically with all the other compiz packages (even though this is Kubuntu, which uses KDE). Failure to install compiz-kde results in your windows not having any borders or widgets.

Second, install the compizconfig-settings-manager package. This is the configuration panel to access all the options for Compiz Fusion. Without this, some things just don’t behave quite right. For example, in the normal KDE desktop, I have focus follow the mouse. This doesn’t translate automatically to Compiz so you have to use the settings manager to adjust it. The tool also gives you access to all the Compiz plugins.

After all that’s done, restart X (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace) and log back in. Run the Compiz Settings Manager by going to the KMenu, Settings, Advanced Desktop Effects Settings. Adjust to your heart’s content.

There are still some quirks running Compiz on Kubuntu (such as the update manager icon sometimes appearing as a separate window rather than an icon in the notification area). But at least this gets it to be operational.

Have more tips? Post them in the comments.

Software

Gmail Storage Space Counter Speedup

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I thought I was seeing things but the counter on the Gmail login page that indicates the maximum amount of storage space for your account is counting up faster than before. The Official Gmail Blog confirmed this on Friday.

“In April 2005, we started increasing Gmail storage as part of our “Infinity+1” storage plan. At that time, we realized we’d never reach infinity, but we promised to keep giving Gmail users more space as we were able. That said, a few of you are using Gmail so much that you’re running out of space, so to make good on our promise, today we’re announcing we are speeding up our counter and giving out more free storage.”

In addition, Google Apps will be getting a storage increase as well. Standard and Education Editions will be getting the same space as the non-Apps version of Gmail (instead of just 2 GB). Premiere Edition (the subscription based version) will go from 10 GB to 25 GB.

Since Yahoo! Mail has unlimited storage space, this is a welcome change even though I have yet to fill up my mailbox.

Software

TrueCrypt: Free Encryption for Windows and Linux

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I was recently asked how to password protect a USB memory stick (a.k.a. thumb drive, USB key, etc.) without having to buy software. TrueCrypt is a free and open source solution for securely encrypting data on any kind of drive including USB keys. In addition, it’s available for both Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Linux so you can share the secure data between operating systems.

With TrueCrypt you can either create a file of a specific size that will appear as a separate drive on your system (virtual encrypted disk) or you can encrypt an entire partition/drive. Of course, you can’t encrypt your entire boot disk because your computer still has to be able to load the TrueCrypt software to read the boot files.

A unique feature of TrueCrypt is that you can create a hidden area inside an encrypted volume that uses a different password. This hidden partition cannot be detected even if it’s analyzed byte-by-byte because it all looks like random bits. By storing your most important data in the hidden area, no one will know it’s there even if they force you to give them the password–you give them the password to the main encrypted area, not the hidden one.

TrueCrypt supports AES, Serpent and Twofish encryption algorithms.