This part of my Ubuntu 13.10 installation series. I took a few notes on the tools I installed and settings that I tweaked.
Suspend Setting
This may be a little out of place, but it had to go somewhere. I close my laptop lid a lot just to move locations, and many times, I don’t want it to suspend. So, I turn that off in the settings:
Unfortunately, it seems to be buggy. It still suspends at times regardless. The worst is if I power the machine off and close the lid before it turns if. Then, I’ll open it up, and it will come back on long enough to finish shutting down.
Online Accounts
I added my Facebook account to the “Online Accounts” in the settings. This allowed me to export pictures from Shotwell to Facebook.
Multiple Monitor Settings
One of the default settings that I don’t like is the way that it places the launcher on all of my screens. Also, the mouse sticks between monitors. I turn off both of those settings:
Synaptic
The past couple of installations, I haven’t used Synaptic. Between the command-line apt-get and the Software Center, I have been able to manage everything. Still, Synaptic is a nice general tool to have. The one handy thing I have wanted to use it for is to force a particular version of a package.
Just to have it, I installed it from the Software Center:
Y PPA Manager
The Y PPA Manager is a nice-to-have tool for managing the repositories. I installed it with these commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager
Compiz Settings Manager
The Compiz Settings Manager is a handy tool to tweak the compiz settings. It installs easy from the Software Center:
There are some extra plugins that I like, namely the Wobbly Windows. Those require an extra package called compiz-plugins. You have to show the 25 technical items to see it in the Software Center.
Now, the Wobbly Windows can be activated:
Tweak Tool
I wanted to get my number lock to be on by default when I boot up. Unfortunately, that setting has been removed from the Keyboard settings screen. I read that I could change that in the Gnome Tweak Tool. I couldn’t find the setting. I’ll have to keep looking for it.
So, I installed the gnome-tweak-tool package from the Software Center.
I also found the unity-tweak-tool. This one was probably more appropriate. I set the clock settings here to show the date by the clock (On Launcher > Panel):
I turned off the online searches (It’s not so great if you search for BRAsero). I unchecked Search online sources (on Launcher > Search):
I also enabled the legacy scrollbars. They are much easier to work with (on System > Scrolling):
Fixing Number Lock
Everytime I reboot, the number lock is off. My keyboard has a 10-key, so I want it on by default.
I installed the numlockx package from the software center. Then, I ran this to edit the config script:
sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf
I added this line to the end of the file:
greeter-setup-script=/usr/bin/numlockx on
Now, it’s on when I reboot.
Resources
- WebUpd8: HOW TO LIST PACKAGES FROM A PPA / REPOSITORY IN UBUNTU
- Ubuntu Community Help Wiki: NumLock
- Ask Ubuntu: How to access the Keyboard Layout Options in 13.10+
- Ask Ubuntu: Num Lock function has changed after upgrading to UBUNTU 13.10 [duplicate]
- Ask Ubuntu: How to enable numlock at boot time for login screen?
- Ubuntu Sharing: Enable Number pad NumLock at startup in Ubuntu Login Window