How to install the Ubuntu netbook remix launcher in Ubuntu 10.04

                     Ubuntu netbook remix is a new and light version of the ubuntu linux with appearance customized for the netbooks to compete with the moblin. For gods sake it's also applicable in desktops and laptops too. This post is about my experiments with the ubuntu netbook remix. 

                     When i heard about the netbook remix edition first, i thought it was bit different than the usual ubuntu linux. So i began to download the netbook edition iso from the Ubuntu website. On installing it i found mear resemblance of it with the lucid lynx. When firstly booted the new and fresh desktop welcome me. See the pictures. The appearance was so good but the problem is that the netbook launcher which is installed over the gnome was taking a long time to respond. The mouse clicks are not correctly laid. The click will go somewhere else and felt it so cumbersome, but applications didn't felt any lagging after loading except the netbook launcher in the desktop. Thus the craze had got a tragedy end.

                     I turned back to my ubuntu 10.04 and began working with it for a while. After a day when looking over something in synaptic package manager the slow responding netbook launcher came to my mind again. I just search for the word netbook in the synaptic. There i found a lot of netbook related application suitable for ubuntu. Of the list i just selected netbook-launcher and started installing it. Everything gone right and loaded the launcher. Once again the launcher started lagging and hanging similar to the situation that i have faced while installed the Ubuntu netbook remix edition. Bad luck again, no way to continue due to this lagging. So i decided to stop my craze towards the netbook appearence by removing the just installed package. After completing the removal i look over the other netbook related packages in the synaptic once again. There i found a package with description 'a lite version of netbook launcher written in EFL' and found it already installed. Taken the terminal and typed in the command, it was there and loaded. To the great extend of amazing the lite version of the netbook launcher was responding very quickly and i felt the change when i hover the cursor over the launcher. The EFL launcher is nice and running in my laptop without any conflict with the compiz window manager. Those are the screen shots...

Installation

Take the synaptic package manager

System => administration => Synaptic Package manager

search for the package netbook-launcher-efl . Click on it and select the mark for installation. Click on the apply button to start downloading the package and installing it.

After installing, take the gnome-terminal and type in as follows

$ netbook-launcher-efl

Then the netbook launcher application will start in the next moment.

You can add this netbook launcher to load automatically everytime you boot. Take the startup application from System => Preferences => Startup Applications

Click on the add button and type in the textbox corresponding to the command as 

netbook-launcher-efl

Thats all... enjoy the Netbook remix in your box...

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How to take a Screenshot from the Command Line

There is no need of a graphical utility to take the screen shot of your desktop, no need to wonder how.. Lets try it with your terminal. Terminal is a powertool and solution to all the problems in linux

The advantage of using commandline tool is that if you need to take a screenshot in an environment, where you cannot run a graphical screenshot utility prefer this method.

1. Take a Screenshot from an X Terminal

Take the gnome terminal and type in as follows

   $ sleep 5; import -window root screen.png   

                       
                        The sleep command delays the process for five seconds before the screenshot is taken. This is the time to minimize windows, expand menus, or make other necessary adjustments before the screenshot is taken. By changing the sleep value you can control the delay before the screenshot is taken.                         

                        The import utility that is part of the ImageMagick suite of tools to take a screenshot of the entire window and name the image screen.png. If you want to grab a particular part of the screen, you also can use the -crop option to grab that specific area

                      $import -crop 500x400                  

And if you run import without -window your cursor will change to a crosshair, which you can drag over the area you want to capture. PNG is a recommended screenshot format, but ImageMagick supports a range of different formats, so you can use what you need. Type as below to see the man page to know more about import.

                            $ man import                              

2. Take a Screenshot from a Command-Line Terminal

               If you need to take a screenshot from a command-line console while X is running elsewhere on the system, adjust the command line and add a few additional features to it. This method is commonly used when you need a screenshot of an installation routine or a program running on an embedded device.To do this, first access the shell that runs behind the installer by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F3.This terminal is called tty3. It provides you with a simple shell in which you can run the commands to grab the shot.

                       Before you can run the command to grab the shot, find out the display number of the running X server. Every X server has a unique display number that is mapped to the particular user who is using X. You can find this by typing in the  terminal as follows

                        $ echo $DISPLAY                            

Let your display number returns :0.0, Then the command to grab the screenshot is:

 $ chvt 7; sleep 5; import -window root screen.png -display :0.0 ; chvt 3  

Three actions will take place following to this,

process of switching to the X terminal

grabbing the screenshot

switching back to your current command-line terminal.

The first command (chvt 7) switches to the X terminal say gnome (usually the 7th terminal is the X), and then the second command (sleep 5) pauses the process for two seconds to switch to the 7th terminal. Then the import command is used to grab the root window on display :0.0 and save the shot as screen.png. Finally, the terminal is switched back to terminal 2 (chvt 2).

You can change the virtual terminal by changing the number after the chvt.

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